The Blue Rose
by SPDudley
Summary: Rei encounters a mysterious American EVA pilot visiting Tokyo-3 for a training exercise with NERV, and unexpectedly finds herself the target of his affections. Set during the original series. The first of a three-part series.
1. Prologue

Out of the large windows of a giant observation tower, the man watched the sun creep over the mountains of the east. It was 4:59 AM, in the high desert of Nevada. The sunlight slowly progressed westward, revealing a gleaming city in the desert. Modern, glass and steel buildings were spread out over a wide distance from the tower. Surrounding the city was nothing but arid desert. It was quiet and still.

The man turned his attention to the two biomechanical giants that he was observing moving through the exercise range below. Both of the forty meter- tall giants were called Evangelions, a name intended to convey a spirit of salvation that the machines were supposed to provide. Today was not about salvation, however. It was about destruction.

The two Evangelions, or EVAs as they were commonly called, moved through the simulated city in a tightly coordinated effort, one taking cover and watching as the other moved quickly and carefully into another position of cover and then watching as the first one bounded forward. One of the EVA units was painted gunmetal black, while the other was a silvery white. Both moved as two soldiers would, with helmets and rifles, trained on perceived enemies in the distance.

As the white unit moved through a city block, an auto-cannon began to fire rapidly at it. The white EVA ducked behind a building, while the black unit took careful aim and opened fire with its rifle at the shooter. A billowing cloud of smoke appeared over the buildings. Both of the units moved quickly to where the smoke came from and found lying down in an exploded state another large humanoid figure. This one resembled the other two, but was painted purple and had a horn-like antenna on its helmet. Pieces of the destroyed Evangelion unit were strewn throughout the city block. The two giants quickly examined the destroyed beast and then proceeded to move forward again in tandem through the maze of city blocks.

Only a few steps later they again took fire from the horizon above the buildings and both giants dove for cover. The black EVA stood up and started firing on its own while the other quickly bounded between buildings, moving closer to the source of the fire. The white monster leaned against a building, brought up its rifle, and fired off a quick set of bursts. It was rewarded with another explosion, this one nearby. The black unit caught up to the other and both saw the target: another giant Evangelion unit, this one painted yellow, with a single large round "eye" on its helmet. The white EVA prodded the dead beast with its rifle, and it moved around noisily while it fell apart in pieces; it was only a mechanical target, not like the two hunters.

The two Evangelions continued to move deliberately towards the center of the city training range. In the center of the simulated city was another visible target, a red-painted unit with four green eyes, firing at the EVAs with two rocket launchers. Both units dodged the incoming rockets, which fell against the buildings and destroyed much of the facade scenery in the training range. The silvery-white EVA jumped up and shoulder-mounted its rifle, firing a continual burst at the mechanical red beast, while the other reached back and grabbed a fighting knife that was ejected from an upper shoulder mount. Upon grabbing the knife the black EVA ran at full speed down the boulevard straight at the red figure.

The four-eyed head of the red EVA swiveled to meet the oncoming black unit but it was too late. The black Evangelion had swiftly jumped directly in front of the target. Moving quickly, it reached back with its arm and in a single motion slashed the red target's head clean off with the Progressive Knife. A spout of fire and smoke exploded from the neck and the red simulated Evangelion collapsed to the ground.

Inside the observation tower, a voice came over the loudspeaker. "Master Control, Units 03 and 04 have completed the training range. All targets confirmed destroyed." The voice was young and confident.

The man in the tower looked over the city at the carnage and the two giants standing amid the fire and smoke, and he smiled to himself.

_We're ready!_


	2. Chapter 1: Little Girl in the Hallway

Blue Rose chapter 1 rewrite

MONDAY

At 7:45 AM students began to slowly trickle through the courtyard gates of Tokyo-3 Middle School Number One. Dressed in blue and white uniforms, dozens of mostly Japanese teenagers walked past the gates chatting with one another or calling out to friends before the start of the day.

Toji Suzahara walked through the gates along with his friend Kensuke Aida. Unlike the rest of the students Toji wore a black vinyl tracksuit over his school uniform, a throwback to his earlier childhood years in the Kansai region of Japan where a tracksuit was very much the local fashion statement. The bespectacled Aida wore the standard boys uniform but carried an extra camera bag along with his white school bag.

"God, it's gonna be hot today!" Toji remarked to the other boy. Aida however was distracted by what he saw in the courtyard and started to pull out his video camera from its bag, something he did about a dozen times a day.

"What's goin' on?" Toji asked him.

"New pilots today," he calmly answered.

"New pilots?"

Kensuke kept his camera on it's target and pointed with his other hand. Toji followed Kensuke's finger and saw two Caucasian boys wondering around the school courtyard, each wearing the standard boys' school uniform of white shirt with blue trousers. One of the boys was of medium built and height with unkempt blond hair and emerald green eyes, while the other was much taller and more muscular, with closely cropped black hair and dark eyes. They could see that both were looking at a map and trying to find their way around. Other students curiously glanced at them as they walked by but no one made any attempt to talk to them.

"How do you know they're pilots?" Toji asked.

"Why else would two more _gaijin_ students be dropped in here," Kensuke said. He sighed. "Lucky bastards! Why can't _I_ get that job?"

Kensuke was correct about the two boys, who spent the next few minutes getting lost inside the school grounds as they tried to follow their Japanese-only map and find their starting classroom.

"This building is a maze!" the tall boy said in exasperation as they both went up another flight of stairs. "How are we supposed to find our way around this place?"

"You could just ask someone," his blond companion suggested.

Taking the suggestion the taller boy singled out two girls walking up the stairway next to them. In very broken Japanese he tried to ask for directions to their new homeroom but as they listened to him the two girls just smiled and giggled a little, and then waived and ran downstairs.

"Oh, well," the taller boy remarked. "I'm sure they thought I was at least charming."

"Maybe, but your Japanese sucks!" the blond boy said to him, and proceeded to address another boy climbing up the same stairway. After a quick set of questions and answers he said "thank you" in Japanese to the boy and motioned to his friend to go to the third floor.

Once on the third floor the boys wondered down the hallway and tried to find their particular classroom, having to fight an increasingly larger crowd of students as the clocked moved closer to 8:00AM. To the two of them, the school seemed clean, plain, and structured, much like the Japanese that built it.

"Why are we here again?" the blond boy asked.

"_Cultural exchange_," the taller boy replied. "I think today's a holiday: Make Fun of Foreigners Day."

"You shouldn't have slept during the language classes," his mate quipped.

"We're just suppose to be able to talk to the Japanese," he defended. "Not go to freaking school here!"

The teenagers kept looking down the hallway to find their starting room when the blond boy noticed one of the students sitting on the floor with her knees bent upward, quietly reading a book.

"Well, _hello there,_" he said mostly to himself, taking a keen interest in the blue-haired girl seated down the hall. The taller boy saw who had caught his friend's eye. "Oh, wow. Blue hair. That's something you don't see every day." He expected a sarcastic reply from his friend but noticed that instead he was becoming increasingly entranced with the girl who was reading.

"She's probably like in a punk band or something," the tall boy said.

"I don't think so," the blond boy replied. "That face...just like a little girl." He kept staring at her trying to get a better look as his friend looked on. After a couple of minutes the tall boy playfully knocked his friend on the head. "Yo. Earth to Patrick: pull out!" Patrick brushed him aside.

"There's something else about her," he told the tall boy. "Look at the eyes!"

"What about them?"

"The _color_."

The taller boy took another look at the pale teenaged girl and saw her eye color. "Red," he said.

"Yes. Bright red."

"OK, She's weird. So anyway..."

"Think she'll talk to me?" Patrick suddenly asked his friend. Vance looked around again and noticed that none of the other students had greeted or spoken to the blue-haired girl the entire time they had been spying on her.

"No. If I didn't know any better I'd say she has her own AT Field. Notice how no one goes anywhere near her: that can't be a good sign."

"Well, it's a good thing I'm an EVA pilot then," Patrick replied.

"What did I teach you? Couldn't you stick to normal girls?" Vance asked as Patrick started to slowly walk over to the girl with the book.

"Normal girls are boring," Patrick replied as he continued to walk to where she was sitting.

_There's something about her,_ Patrick thought, finding himself strangely drawn to the quiet girl with the book. _Something...unearthly._

The boy stopped right in front of where the girl was sitting and waited to see if she would look up from her book. She didn't. Vance stood in the background about ten steps away from him and crossed his arms, a knowing smirk on his face.

Patrick took a deep breath. "Uh…Hi!" The blue-haired girl just kept reading her book, ignoring the boy.

He tried to speak Japanese to her: "Umm… excuse me?" After a few moments she then silently looked up at him.

"Uh-H-H-Hello! How are you?" Patrick said nervously. The girl still stared at him, without any facial expression. "I'm Patrick...Um...What's your name?"

Vance watched his friend's pick-up attempt and fought hard to suppress his own laughter as he thought to himself _Oh man, he is so blowing this!_

As Patrick struggled to figure out what else to say the girl suddenly broke her silence. Ayanami...Rei" she said in a whisper-like voice.

The blond boy was shocked. "Uh...what did you say?" he said in English.

"Rei," she repeated, looking directly at him as she said it.

Patrick never felt so nervous in his life. "Oh, Okay." He then said in Japanese: "Nice to meet you, Rei! I'm Patrick! Patrick Forrestal."

"You are American," she replied back in English.

His eyebrows raised high. "You know English?"

"Yes. I learned it."

"Oh," he sighed in great relief. "Well that's great! It seems like no one here speaks it. Well, anyway…"

The musical chime of the starting bell sounded over the loudspeakers. Any students that were still left in the hallways quickly moved into classrooms as teachers began walking down the hallway to their classes.

_Oh, crap._ _Just as I'm getting started here._

Upon hearing the bell Rei quietly closed her book and stood up off the floor. "Time to go," she said and without saying another word started to walk away toward one of the classrooms.

Patrick called out to her. "Hey! What class are you?" he said in English. She didn't reply back to him but just kept walking away.

"No, that's not it!" he said to himself. He tried to rephrase the question in Japanese and call out to her. The blue-haired girl didn't answer him but instead just silently slipped into a classroom. Patrick wasn't sure if she had heard him or not. He was quickly deflated. "Oh, okay then. See you later!"

The tall boy was observing all of this with a smile on his face as walked over to the now-defeated Forrestal. "I told you she's a lost cause!"

"At least she speaks English," Patrick replied, trying to find a silver lining. "That can't be bad!"

"Then maybe you'll have another shot at it," Vance said and pointed at the classroom Rei had slipped into a moment earlier. It was labeled "2-A" which just happened to be the classroom that they were looking for in the first place.

The boys quickly walked inside and stopped after only a few feet as stares meet other stares. The noise level of the room suddenly dropped to silence as all of the students in the class stopped what they were doing and silently looked straight at the two newcomers. Patrick noticed that one of the students had out a video camera and was filming them.

"Okaaay," Vince quietly said to his friend. "What do we do now?"

The teacher, an older man with glasses and white hair spoke to them in English. "Are you Mr. Forrestal? And Mr. Vinson?"

"Yes!" they both exclaimed, and then in Japanese they bowed and said "_Sumimasen! Hajememashite!_"

The old teacher politely replied "It's okay. My English is not good, but enough. Please stand here." He motioned to both of the boys to stand in front of the class, whereupon they did so feeling so much like goldfish in a bowl being watched by a pack of hungry cats.

"You will introduce yourselves now," said the old teacher, who then spoke something to the class in Japanese that the two American boys couldn't understand. The teacher then slowly walked over the chalkboard and wrote the boys names on it in both in roman letters and in Katakana, the syllabic characters reserved for foreign names and words.

Vance addressed the class first in good English and then in bad Japanese. "Hi! I'm Vance Vinson, and this is Patrick Forrestal." Patrick then also greeted the class, only his Japanese was smoother. There was murmuring among the students until the teacher motioned to the class to quiet down.

"Please take your seats." The old teacher motioned to two empty desks at the very back of the classroom. The boys started to walk down the aisles as the other 38 students in class 2-A continued to stare at the foreigners. One of them however, a slight, pretty girl with long legs and flowing red hair, actually seemed happy to see them.

"Finally some other Americans here!" the girl exclaimed in slightly accented English. With blue eyes, she didn't look at all Japanese.

"Have we met?" Patrick asked her.

The red-haired girl replied confidently "I don't think so. You would have remembered it!"

Vance was impressed. "Damn, your English is good!"

The girl haughtily replied "Of course, stupid! I'm American, just like you."

A short, slender boy next to her said in Japanese "Asuka, you're from Germany. Why _is_ your English so good?"

"_Baka_ Shinji!" she teased back. "I'm American, too. The name is LANGLEY, isn't it?"

"I always thought that was German," Shinji said, ignoring the insult.

As the couple bickered in front of them Vance whispered something in Patrick's ear, surprising him.

"Damn, why didn't you tell me earlier?" Patrick said. "NERV, huh?" Both boys found the empty desks in the back of the classroom and sat down. As he was sitting down Patrick noticed that Rei was sitting at a desk by the window a few rows from them. She wasn't paying any attention to the entire ruckus inside the classroom but instead just stared out the window into the distance. He waived to her to try to get her attention and thought that she could see her looking at him out of the corner of her eye. She did nothing in return however, but just continued to look out the window.

At the beginning of the lunch break the two boys compared notes as the others in the class went about their own business, eating lunch and chatting.

"So she's the German pilot?" Patrick confirmed with Vance as they watched Asuka alternatively chatting with another girl student and then arguing with three boys a few rows in front of them.

"Correct. Asuka _Soryu_ Langley. The Second Child. She's their _wunderkid, _trained in just about every art and science, especially the martial ones. Only fourteen and already has her college degree."

Patrick looked at her narrowly. "Seems more like their _uberbitch_ to me." Vance laughed. "I don't doubt it. Now that boy next to them," he pointed out, "that kind of wimpy looking one."

"Yeah?"  
"That's probably Shinji Ikari, the _Third_ Child."

"He's Unit 01's _pilot_? _That_ kid!" Patrick whispered.

Vance nodded. "Probably."

The blond pilot had seen the video footage of Unit 01's combats with the Angels and had noticed how ferociously EVA-01 had fought. "That kid looks like swatting flies would give him trouble."

"And yet we've seen what he's capable of," Vance said. Patrick shook his head, figuring that maybe his friends intelligence on the Japanese pilots wasn't quite accurate. "Well, if she's the Second, and he's the Third," Patrick asked him, "where's the first?" Vance said nothing but pointed at the now familiar blue-haired girl who had left her desk by the window and now walked out the classroom door. Patrick's eyes went wide.

"Her? Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

"Actually, all I had was the name. Didn't know it myself until you hit on her before class." Patrick sat back in his chair after that, going into dream-mode as he watched the petite girl walk down the hallway seemingly oblivious to him. "Still, though, she's really very...interesting."

Vance just shook his head. "Oh, man, you are in love!"

"No, it's not that," Patrick protested. "It's just, well, anyway, if she's a pilot I'm sure to meet her later, right?"

After school both boys boarded the train and traveled from school to the headquarters of NERV, the United Nations agency responsible for the Evangelion project. The train ride was short and most passengers were either personnel of NERV or civilians associated with it in some way. During the short trip none of the other passengers paid the two boys any notice.

One they exited the train Patrick and Vance walked a short distance to what looked to them like a theme park entrance: a series of gates, each requiring a pass card to open. It was in fact the entrance to the GeoFront, NERV's giant underground facility. Standing just in front of the gates was a very attractive twenty-something Japanese woman in a red uniform, wearing a beret over her long black hair and carrying a LCD tablet case. Vance cheerfully waved and called out to her, "Hello Misato-san!"

"Hello, Vance!" the woman replied in accented English. "It's nice to see you again. Patrick, do you remember me?"

"Oh, do I ever!" he replied with a smile.

She smiled too, pleased at the flattery. "I guess I'll take that as a compliment. I need to give you both of your security cards so you can get in and out of here, there's some paperwork to be done, and then we'll get together with the others. I heard that you ran into them already."

"We had our first day of class today," said Patrick.

"Good, nice to know we're getting a good start," she replied. "Besides, I think Asuka wants the company. For someone who's part-Japanese, you'd never know it!"

The boys had met Misato once before, as two weeks prior to their coming to Japan she was sent to NERV Second Branch in Nevada to observe, as it was put to her, an "interesting development" by the American branch of the Evangelion project. The Americans had been tasked with constructing two Evangelion units, EVA-03 and EVA-04, but their responsibilities lay only for the units' engineering, with operations being taking on by the main NERV center at Tokyo-3. Three weeks ago Second Branch leadership surprised the rest of NERV with the announcement that they had actually found their own pilots and were operating the two EVA units on their own.

Following the announcement Misato was dispatched to NERV-2 in Nevada where the Americans arranged a demonstration for Misato of their two EVAs in action, and then allowing her to meet briefly with the two pilots afterward. She found herself very suitably impressed.

After the demonstration Misato quickly flew back to Japan and reported to Commander Ikari what she had seen. Shortly thereafter NERV-2 proposed to the commander to allow them to send their two units to Japan for a joint training exercise with his three operational ones. Ikari immediately accepted the challenge and now after extensive preparations the two EVA units had finally arrived in Japan along with their pilots.

The major led both boys through the gates, each one of them sliding their new security cards in the provided slot to gain entry. She then led them down a corridor and to a bank of escalators, making small talk along the way. After what seemed to the two boys like the longest escalator ride either of them had ever taken, they finally exited and again walked through a long maze of corridors within the GeoFront. They made several stops along the way, seeing various people who spoke rapid-fire Japanese with Misato, whereupon she usually pulled out her LCD tablet and exchanged data with the staff members. After about an hour of bureaucratic process the three of them finally reached a conference room.

Waiting inside the room was another Japanese woman about the same age as Misato, with dyed blond hair, a lab coat over her NERV uniform, and brown stockings on her very noticeable long legs. Standing next to her were Japan's three Evangelion pilots, all still wearing their school uniforms. Misato did a quick introduction to Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, who was the scientific director of NERV, and began on the afternoon's agenda.

"Everyone," she began, "You've already met Patrick and Vance. Officially Patrick and Vance are considered only back-up pilots, but in effect they are the pilots of Evangelion Units 03 and 04."

Dr. Akagi now joined in. "We will be conducting a joint training operation between the Japanese and American branches of NERV and among EVA units. Because only NERV in Japan has fought Angels, it's important that NERV-2 get some experience. The best way to accomplish that is to train with our own pilots."

"That's right!" Asuka exclaimed. "We are the best!"

Misato chided her. "Now Asuka, there's no need to boast. You guys work in a team effort!"

"Sure, that's what you're supposed to say," Asuka retorted. "But we all know Japanese kick serious ass!" Everyone else in the room just winced at her comment.

Fortunately Shinji was more serious. "How long have you piloted EVA?" he asked the two Americans.

Vance replied "I've been with Unit 03 for three years. Patrick is newer to this." Patrick chimed in. "Yeah, I've only been piloting a few months."

Dr Akagi then continued. "Right now we have some tests to conduct and then you can all talk later."

"Correct!" finished Misato. "And both of you boys are invited to my place after we're though here!"

Following the meeting all five of the pilots went to their respective ready rooms. As they prepared for the upcoming harmonics test Patrick donned his plug suit, an orange-colored bodysuit with black stripes, and walked over to Shinji.

"Hey, let me introduce myself. I'm Patrick," he said, offering his hand.

"Ikari Shinji. Nice to meet you." They both shook hands. "You speak Japanese very well."

"Thanks," Patrick said, feeling relieved at the compliment. "I was learning for a couple of years before I got into this."

"And Vance, too?" Shinji asked.

"I think he's a bit newer at it. Anyway, your fellow pilot doesn't say much," Patrick said to Shinji. Shinji had to think for a moment about who Patrick meant. "Oh, Ayanami? No, she really doesn't. That's just the way she is."

"Anyway," Patrick inquired "Will she be going to Capt. Katsuragi's place after we're done?"

"It's Major now, actually, and I don't really know if she'll go. She sort of keeps to herself," Shinji replied.

"I see..."

"Actually, we don't know all that much about her at all," Shinji commented as he finished putting on his own plug suit, "But she's still one of us."

_One of us… _

The harmonics test took about one hour as each pilot sat inside their entry plug while various test protocols were run. Mostly the testing was done to determine how well each pilot was able to mentally synchronize (or "sync") with their respective Evangelion unit. From the outside the test was silent and motionless, with only dynamic readings on computer monitors to indicate any activity. The real action took place inside each pilot's minds, as electroneural probes invisibly passed through each pilot's brain, registering their conscious and unconscious response to various stimuli. The process was usually not painful but Patrick always felt it was strange at times, like some unseen force was pushing his thoughts around. He had learned earlier that he could push back and usually after some effort he was able to match the intruding probes exactly move for move. It was one of the weirder things about being an Evangelion pilot.

In the control room Misato watched the five pilots on the monitors and turned to Dr. Akagi. "How is the test going?"

"EVA-03 and 04 are still being calibrated so this is only preliminary, but our two new pilots seem to be performing adequately," Ritsuko replied.

"How so?"

Ritsuko checked monitors as she spoke with Misato. "Vinson is moderate, lower than Asuka but stable. Forrestal seems better, more on a level with Shinji."

"I see," said Misato. "I thought the Americans were only supposed to build those two EVA units, not operate them by themselves!"  
"That was the original plan," replied Ritsuko. "Evidently they found a way to employ their own pilots."

"But the Marduk Institute was supposed to be the only organization able to find pilots. How are those two able to pilot the EVA?"

The scientist took her eyes away from the monitors. "I don't know myself. That information is held by NERV-2 and they haven't let me see it. I think that the Americans are holding them as an insurance policy."

"Meaning?"

Ritsuko took off her glasses. "Meaning if Tokyo-3 were to be destroyed there would be something left to fight the Angels."

Misato was indignant. "Meaning that they don't trust us!"

"It's reasonable from a certain point of view, really," continued Ritsuko. "In any case, if Marduk hasn't identified them, I do wonder how they've been able to determine how they're capable of piloting EVA. Interestingly enough, I've met Forrestal's father."

"Oh?"

"Dr. Harrison Forrestal. He co-developed the MAGI along with my mother."

Misato sat down in one of the chairs. "I thought your mother was the primary designer of the MAGI?"

"She was, but Dr. Forrestal worked on many of the sub-components of the system. He's also the technical chief of NERV-2. If these two boys are capable of piloting EVA, it's probably his doing."

Ritsuko carefully checked the monitors again and turned to her assistant, Lieutenant Maya Ibiki.

"Maya?" The petite young officer eagerly swiveled in her chair. "Yes, _sempai_?"

"Finish the test. I think we have enough for now."

Dr. Akagi and Major Katsuragi were not the only ones with a strong interest in the abilities of the American pilots as several stories above them NERV commander Gendo Ikari and Vice Commander Kozue Futsuyuki both reviewed the test data in the commander's office.

"How well are the Americans adjusting?" asked Vice Commander Futsuyuki.

"They are conducting harmonics tests currently and will be settling in for a couple of days," replied Commander Ikari. "We should be able to start conducing joint training shortly."

"Interesting that the Americans would choose now to reveal their little secret," Futsuyuki commented. "We had no idea before now that they were doing this?"

The commander mulled a bit. "Conducting full-scale operations with two EVAs would ordinarily be quite difficult to hide. They wouldn't have been able to go this far without a great deal of help."

"Do you think they don't trust us?" queried the Vice Commander.

Gendo looked at him. "Who, the Committee?"

"Yes. No doubt they have their own fall-back plan in case of our failure."

"Or a way to police us if we succeed too well," Ikari mulled. "While the revelation of their own side program is troubling, I'm more concerned that they've even found pilots. That wasn't supposed to be possible without us being involved."

"I understand that Dr. Forrestal is brilliant," Futsuyuki said, "An expert both with quantum computers and with genetics. He had a Nobel Prize at a young age before Second Impact."

"Nonetheless he seems to know more than he has a right to," commented the commander as he folded his hands in front of him. "Put their pilots to the maximum test possible. Let's see if they're capable of masquerading as well as they seem."

_At the same time, half-way around the world._

The man stood before a window overlooking the desert as the sun was just now coming up again in the East. Behind him a young officer opened the door and stood at attention.

"Yes?"

The young officer spoke. "A message from MICHAEL, sir. He says they've achieved penetration into Tokyo-3."

"Good." He motioned to the officer and he left the observation room. As sunlight began to illuminate the desert in front of him the man stared out into the horizon.

_Now is the beginning of the end._


	3. Chapter 2: Welcoming Party

CHAPTER TWO

After the harmonics test the two boys changed back into their school clothes and met briefly with members of the American technical crew that came with them to Japan. They then hopped a train from NERV, eventually finding their way to the Officers apartments. This time they had better directions than with the school.

"Well, I think this is the place," said Vance, as he rang the doorbell. The door opened and there was Misato, dressed in a baby tee and cutoff shorts, beer can in hand. She was definitely letting it all hang out.

"Hi there! Come on in, boys!"

_"Tadaima!_" said Patrick in his very best Japanese pronunciation.

_"Okaeri Nasai!_" responded Misato cheerfully. "Very good! So your Japanese is coming on well!"

"It's still very difficult!" said Patrick. "I don't know how I'm going to survive being in school here!"

"It's okay! Everyone knows that you're only here for the training exercise, so they'll cut you a lot of slack," replied Misato. "Besides, I'm sure the cultural exchange will be beneficial to all!"

Asuka was also there in the apartment, and certainly had a difference of opinion. "Oh, right! Let me tell you guys from experience, Japanese schools suck! I've seen both kinds, so I should know!" Like Misato, Asuka was wearing just a tee shirt and cutoffs.

"Asuka! Please!" Misato scolded. Shinji heard the commotion and came out of his room. "Hello!"

"Hi, Shinji," said the boys. Shinji was also just wearing a t-shirt and shorts.

"Was it easy for you to find our apartment?" Shinji asked.

"No trouble," said Patrick. "So, this is your landlord, huh?" He gestured to Misato.

"Yeah, we live in a crowded house here," Shinji sighed.

Vance was more positive. "I don't know. Living with two cute babes could certainly give me inspiration!"

¨Don't expect anything like that from wimpy boy here!" said Asuka snidely.

¨Still, the scenery is kind of ni-"

Vance managed to pull his eyes away from the two ladies enough to notice the absolute trash heap that was Misato's apartment. There were piles of beer and coffee cans, sake bottles, pizza and Pocky boxes, unwashed silverware, old newspapers, and something that looked like old fish bones in a paper box on the floor.

...ce."

Vance whispered to Patrick "Geez, I thought Japanese were all neat and clean. This place is a trash heap!"

Misato couldn't help but overhear them. "Oh, please don't mind us! Besides, we don't get company often here." The doorbell rang again, and Misato escaped to open the front door.

Two more boys from the school had arrived, who both performed a deeply respectful bow and spoke in loud, booming voices. "Greetings, Major Ma'am!"

"Suzahara, Aida!" Misato said with a grin. "Come on in!"

Kensuke Aida, a short boy with freckles and glasses, spotted the two Americans. "Hey, it's the new guys!"

Patrick and Vance were at a loss. "And you are?" Vance asked.

Shinji did the introductions. "This is Toji and Kensuke, our classmates."

"Howdy!" said Toji Suzahara, the taller of the two, who wore a black jumpsuit over his school shirt. Aida let his curiosity get the best of him. "Is it true you're EVA pilots?"

Patrick was clearly surprised, looking at Shinji while pointing to Kensuke. "How'd he know? I thought that was, like, a secret?"

Shinji was not at all surprised. "Kensuke knows a lot of things. He's a natural snoop."

"More like a natural otaku," Toji chimed in.

"Oh, so you like anime, huh?" asked Vance.

"Anime? That is strictly Pre-Second Impact," replied Kensuke. "Oh, no. If I want conflict I much prefer the real-life kind. "

Shinji clarified it for Vance. "He's a military otaku."

"Oh, really?" said Vance.

"Boring!" Asuka interjected from the table, sipping her cola.

Toji was not so quite enamored with his friend's hobby either. "Yeah, the kind who knows the difference between an VSTOL Osprey A and a VSTOL Osprey G, as he was just explaining to me on the way over here for the last half an hour."

Vance took the bait. "You mean between standard and SEAD Wild Osprey combat tilt-rotors?"

Kensuke was positively overjoyed. "You know that! Wow, the MV-22G's only a prototype, so not many know that!"

"Well, we got to see one fly in Nevada at NERV-2," said Vance.

Kensuke's eyes opened wide. "You saw it fly!?"

"And on a combat exercise," Vance continued. "They _are_ pretty cool compared to the base-model Osprey."

"That's so cool!" Kensuke exclaimed. "What else did you see?"

"Well..." Vance was a bit puzzled by Aida's interest, but figured it was good PR for the visit to engage him a bit. He soon found himself backed into a corner being virtually pummeled with questions about all sorts of military hardware.

Watching all of this were Patrick, Asuka, and Shinji, all of them sitting at the kitchen table drinking sodas, while Misato was close by fussing with the microwave. Asuka looked wistfully at Aida's hyperactive inquisition of his new best friend. "I think Kensuke's in love."

Patrick explained it to the others. "Vance is sort of into those things too. His dad's a big naval officer and he heads the security division of NERV-2."

"And I heard your father's the scientific director?" asked Misato.

"That's true."

"It must be a lot of pressure to deal with that." She looked at Shinji as she said that. Shinji just looked away sheepishly.

"It can be some of the time." Patrick continued. "Actually I don't have much contact with him as we're in separate divisions."

"Anyway, now's not the time for talking about work. I've made something for us all!"

Misato showed the kids a platter of perhaps the finest in microwaveable instant Japanese cuisine. The food, if it could still be called that, was too much for Patrick's senses. "Oh, well, that looks…"

Asuka stated the obvious. "Just say it! She's a horrible cook! She'd starve without a microwave!"

"Asuka! Like you can do any better?" Misato retorted.

"At least I stick to what I'm good at!" she shot back.

Patrick looked at Shinji, who had a bored look on his face. "Let me guess, you do the cooking around here?"

"Yeah, more of it," he replied. "Given whom I live with."

"It must take a lot of patience," Patrick observed.

Shinji just looked at him. "You don't know the half of it." Behind them, a door slid open and something walked out.

Patrick ignored the noise and the girls bickering, and resolved himself to not upsetting his hosts, even if that meant eating the steaming mess that was supposed to be dinner. "Well, I guess we just make the best of ...WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" Patrick nearly jumped out of the chair when he saw what appeared to be a penguin walk over to the kitchen and nibbled on the leftover fish inside the paper box on the floor.

"Oh, you've found PenPen!" said Misato cheerfully.

"PENPEN?" Patrick yelled. "You have a _PET_ penguin?"

"Yes, Yes. He's just another houseguest! Here, PenPen!" Misato bent over and fed PenPen a bowl containing a yellow liquid, which he took to with relish.

_Oh geez, what the hell have I walked into here? _Patrick thought to himself._ I think Second Impact affected Japan more than they said._

The doorbell rang again. This time Shinji went to open the door, and in walked another student, which Patrick vaguely recognized as Class 2-A's student representative. She was holding several shopping bags. "Hi, everyone!"

Misato was surprised. "Horaki-chan! What are you doing here?"

"Class Rep!" Toji broke away from Kensuke's interrogation of Vance and moved quickly to the door.

The girl introduced herself to the two Americans. "Hi there. I'm Hikari Horaki, I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier." She handed one of the bags to Misato.

"Nice to meet you," said Patrick. Vance, still being interrogated, just waved at her.

"Anyway," continued Hikari, "I figured Katsuragi-san probably destroyed dinner, so I brought some stuff from home."

Misato started to go through the bag, pulling out several bento-boxes. "Some stuff? Hikari, you probably spent hours on this!"

"Well," Hikari looked around sheepishly, "I don't think it would be good for the Americans to have a bad impression of us, would it?" Misato said nothing but blushed bright red.

Hikari turned to Toji. "Here, Suzahara-kun, please give me a hand." She handed him the other three bags she was carrying.

"How come I gotta hold this?" Toji said, trying to sound tough.

Hikari ignored the protest. "Because you're just standing there not doing anything." Shinji laughed a little at the comment. Asuka on the other hand, was starting to get rather impatient. "Hey, getting hungry here!" she shouted.

"If you're getting hungry come and help me clean the kitchen," replied Hikari.

"Not my department! Get Cinderella-Boy to do it!" Asuka motioned to Shinji.

Shinji sighed. "It's okay, I'll get on it," and walked over to the kitchen. Patrick joined him. "Here, I'll help out, too."

Finally the entire group got to feasting on Hikari's creations, which Patrick thought were actually quite good. "Well, that was much better than I expected," said Patrick, trying not to think about Misato's first attempt at dinner. "What was that noodle stuff?"

Hikari was nothing but proud. "That's Yakisoba! You've never had that?"

"Sorry, we don't get much selection in America," said Patrick while he finished his last bite. "It's mostly teriyaki this and sushi that. Not much in between."

"That's what I had heard," replied Hikari, "So I tried to get some more local dishes."

"Then how come you didn't fix okonomiyaki?" butted in Toji.

Hikari scowled. "Because the Major's place is already a disaster and it's always a mess to make that!"

"But that's the best local dish!" he whined.

"We're not in Kansai, Suzahara," she retorted.

Patrick was confused. "What are they talking about?" he asked Misato.

"It's a regional food that's mostly from Osaka," she explained. "Sort of like Japanese pancakes."

"Oh."

"I really miss American food," Asuka pined. "You can't get a steak here to save your life!"

"No beef cows means no steak, unless you pay 20,000 yen for it," said Misato.

"That's 200 dollars!" exclaimed Patrick.

Asuka knew it. "Yeah, I really miss a good steak," she sighed. "You guys are so lucky with American food every day!"

The doorbell rang yet again. Shinji opened the door and a tall handsome Japanese man with long hair and about three days growth appeared. "Hello."

Asuka's face suddenly brightened up. "Kaji-san!!!" she exclaimed as she jumped up and ran towards the door.

Misato was clearly annoyed at the uninvited guest. "Well, who asked you to come by?"

Kaji calmly explained himself as he found Asuka suddenly wrapping her arm around his. "Sorry, I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by to see the two newcomers."

Vance recognized him at once and stood up from the coffee table. "Oh, Hi! Mr. Kaji!"

Patrick felt out of the loop and turned to his friend. "You know him?"

"Yeah," said Vance. "He stopped in America at my dad's place a few months ago, before you came on board."

Kaji spoke to the two Americans. "I have to say I was a little surprised to find out you two would be coming. Anyway, I've got some things in the car that I need to bring up. Can I get a hand?"

"Oh, I'll help you!!!" offered Asuka.

"No, Asuka, it's okay. They're actually kind of heavy." Kaji tried to wave her off but she was undeterred. "Oh, I can do it! Believe me, it's no trouble!"

"Please don't strain yourself, Asuka-chan," said Kaji. "I think that Vance here needs the workout after so much traveling. Besides, he's the biggest guy here other than me."

"Awww!" she protested.

"It's okay. I don't mind," said Vance.

"Come on down then. Please excuse us everyone." Kaji opened the door and the two of them walked outside.

Patrick watched Vance leave with Kaji then turned to Shinji as Asuka joined them again at the kitchen table. "So where's Rei? Wasn't she invited?"

"You invited Miss Perfect? Oh, come on! That's just useless." Asuka was clearly annoyed.

"Asuka, she hardly ever comes here!" said Shinji. "Besides, I didn't really get a chance to invite her."

"How 'come?" Patrick asked.

"She took off after the Harmonics test," said Shinji.

"So she's the anti-social type?"

"No, she's the stuck-up 'I'm the First Children, get the hell out of my way type!'" Asuka blurted out. "I can't stand how she sucks up to Shinji's dad."

"You mean Commander Ikari?" Patrick asked.

"Well, she spends a lot of time with him," said Shinji.

Patrick was a bit puzzled. He looked at Shinji. "Is Rei your relative?"

"Uh, no!" Shinji said nervously. "Dad takes care of her though."

Now Patrick was really puzzled. "But you don't know her very well..."

"I didn't live with my dad for a long time," said Shinji, still very nervous.

"Oh, so you're with your mom, then?" Patrick asked.

"Here we go with the family drama," groaned Asuka. Shinji shot her an angry look.

"No." Shinji suddenly got very withdrawn. "My mom's….gone."

_Well, I know how that goes._ "Oh, I see. I'm sorry." Patrick quickly tried to change the topic back. "Where does Rei go when she's not at school?"

"Nowhere," said Shinji. "She just spends the time at NERV."

"Doing what?" Patrick asked.

"God only knows!" Asuka growled.

"We really don't know," Shinji added.

By this time, Asuka had lost her patience. "Look, Patrick, if you're thinking to go after The First, don't even waste your time! She's totally in her own world."

"Is she really like that?" Patrick wondered aloud.

Shinji tried to explain. "It's just that she's, well, awkward. She doesn't seem to have much in the way of social skills."

"She doesn't seem to have much in the way of a life!" Asuka cynically corrected.

"At least she talked to me," said Patrick.

Both pilots were shocked. "She S-S-SPOKE to you?" stuttered Shinji. Asuka rolled her eyes. "Oh my God! The heavens fell! "

Patrick wasn't sure what to make of the pilot's reactions. "Yeah, just like a sentence or two."

"You really mean like a word or two," said Asuka.

"Just like that," said Patrick. "I mean, she didn't seem very outgoing, but still..."

She had enough. "Oh, please! I don't want to hear it!" Asuka longingly looked at the door and away from a thoroughly confused Patrick. "When is Kaji going to come back? It's been so long..."

In the parking lot Mr. Kaji had two heavy boxes in his car. Inside each were two watermelons of unusually large size. He handed one box to Vance.

"I didn't know you were an EVA pilot," Kaji said to him.

"We're not supposed to reveal our status." Vance was surprised but calm.

"But you're not identified by the Marduk Institute?"

"Oh, that," Vance replied. "I don't know anything. I just sit in the plug and do what they tell me."

Kaji had become very curious at that remark. "Why are you here, then?"

"It's for joint training with NERV, sort of getting our hunting skills sharp."

"When I saw you before, you seemed pretty sharp already. Have you really piloted for three years?" the agent asked.

"Yes. Much of it was in the simulator, though."

Kaji thought a moment to himself. "Anyway, we should catch up a little bit. Maybe sometime later on we could talk."

"Sure."

In another apartment some distance away Rei Ayanami lay quietly in her bed, still wearing her school uniform. She was thinking of what had happened that morning and of the foreign boy who had spoken to her.

_"H-Hello! How are you?_"

_Who is he?_ She wondered.

_"I'm Patrick...Um...What's your name?_"

_Why did you talk to ...me...?._


	4. Chapter 3: Arabesque

CHAPTER THREE

That evening in the GeoFront's operations level Evangelion Units 03 and 04 were each moved into holding areas known as cages. Once placed inside, large gantries fell into position to hold the units in place. After they were secured the bottom portion of the cage was flooded with LCL, the "medium" liquid that was used in so many of the EVA's important operations, while large umbilical cables were attached to the rear of the humanoid units.

The umbilical cables were the main source of power for the EVAs. They were also the physical data interface between the Evangelion units and the computers at NERV, most particularly the MAGI trinity of supercomputers. Once connected the two EVAs and the MAGI immediately began a furious exchange of information that measured in the hundreds of terabytes.

Each EVA unit sent data regarding its operational status and well-being to the MAGI for analysis and calibration with the combat operations system at Tokyo-3. The incoming data was then sifted several different ways to eliminate any viral or other threats and then combined together and analyzed by the MAGI as a committee. Afterwards the processed data was either scrubbed from the system or archived for future reference. The MAGI ran everything at NERV, from the major combat, research, and life support systems, to even the bathroom lights, and vending machines.

However, unknown to the MAGI's creators a small script was placed on one of the archive drives during the time of their construction several years before. That script had a simple instruction – search for a particular set of data, a data set that it had not come across in the five years since the MAGI were activated.

Once the initial set of status reports from the two American-made units were archived in the MAGI's memory, however, the script had found what it was looking for.

The whole process took place in less than a millisecond. The resident script executed an embedded cryptography program against the newly stored data and revealed a secret instruction, an instruction to find a very specific set of information deep within NERV. Once this information was obtained, a small portion would be copied, re-encrypted, wait for a specified "trigger" event and then transmitted out the same way the original instruction came. Then the original script would erase itself.

To avoid detection the "scout" program would divide itself and the data it obtained into millions of pieces and spread all throughout the MAGIs databanks, disguised as transient data. Each piece would move about the vast databanks of the MAGI, within the continual flow of information between the MAGI at Tokyo-3, the five Evangelions that they were connected to, and the other five MAGI "clones" operated by the NERV organization worldwide. Because it could take advantage of the massive flow of routine, mostly predictable data in the MAGI's code streams, it wouldn't have seemed unusual to the system for the relatively short amount of time it existed.

The scout program was also constructed to incorporate redundancy so that if any bits of data were erased, there were at least two identical bits somewhere in the dataflow. If the program could not find the required information at all within five days it would erase itself and the original script would remain, searching for a new incoming data stream to re-activate it.

Brilliantly conceived and elegantly deceptive, the scout program began its work.

The dream Patrick had that night was the same one he had been having on most nights for the last few months. In the dream he felt himself sitting in the entry plug of the EVA. Around him he could see the multicolor lighting of monitors and hear indistinct voices from inside the plug.

As he rested in the throne, the control seat for the EVA's pilot, he looked down to the far end of the plug and saw a strange, white cloud forming. As he tried to get a better look at it, the cloud started to move closer to him. Voices called out to him as the cloud approached him and he watched as the cloud transformed into the figure of a woman. He looked at the ghostly figure and thought he could make out the image of the face. The apparition came right next to him and suddenly, he felt as cold as ice. The female shape took hold of his head with both hands and as he looked into its face, the image of the ghost's head turned into that of a skull.

He felt himself trying to break free but he could not. The skeleton leaned forward and then wailed loudly with a chilling wind coming from its mouth. He heard the voice of a young girl screaming, and then he heard his own.

Patrick sat up out of bed, panting heavily after waking up. Vance walked into the room,

"Dude, are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine..." Patrick said faintly, as he rubbed his head.

"Another nightmare I see," said Vance. "They're getting more frequent now..."

"It's the same one, over and over again," said Patrick, now sitting on the bed with his feet on the floor.

Vance handed him a bottle of water. "Is this the one where she's in the entry plug?"

"Yeah."

"Don't let it get to you," Vance said. "I'm sure you're just anxious about the training match."

Patrick took a good swig of water and wiped off his forehead of sweat. "I wish that were true..."

_TUESDAY_

In their second day of school, the two Americans joined their fellow pilots in all of their regular classes. Some of the other students were curious about the two boys and asked them questions about life in America and why they were here. Once they mentioned they were EVA pilots, however, most of the other students suddenly went quiet, and then kept a respectful distance between them and the visitors.

On this particular day, Class 2-A had its once a week Home Economics class, which mostly worked out to be a cooking class for middle school students. The forty students filed into a specially prepared kitchen class room and formed pairs as they gathered over miniature stoves. Each station had materials already laid out by the preceding class, including half a dozen eggs, onions, soy sauce, ham bits, salt, sugar, _doma_ (a soup base), and chili peppers. The teacher, a middle-aged woman who looked more bored than the students, told the class that today's lesson was to make omelets.

Hikari walked down the rows of cooking stations and handed out the recipe to each pair of students. Shinji and Asuka formed one pair, while Toji and Kensuke were another. Both of the Americans were paired with the very busy Hikari, who was supervising the class while also cooking her own set.

"Wow, you're amazing!" Vance said as they both watched her rapidly pour ingredients and flip her omelet with grace and skill.

"Well, not really," she said as she blushed. "This is my fourth one today."

"Really? You do the cooking for your family?" Patrick asked her.

"Yep. Every day."

"What about your mom?" Patrick asked.

Her determined attitude suddenly changed. "Um...well, she's not there anymore."

_Meaning she's dead, probably. Just like Shinji's._ "Oh, I'm sorry!" said Patrick.

"It's okay. It was a long time ago. We've gotten used to it." No one said anything for a while, as Hikari finished a perfect omelet by delicately pouring on sauce in a flower patter, and placing some garnish on the side.

As Hikari started to work on a second omelet, Patrick noticed that Rei was not paired up with anyone, but rather was sitting by herself in the corner, on the floor, again reading a book. No one said anything to her. He pointed to her and asked Hikari "How come she isn't doing anything?"

"Oh, Ayanami-chan? She just doesn't like participating. Too much trouble anyway."

"Too much trouble?"

Hikari quickly glanced at Rei while moving back to her stove. "She misses a lot of school because of what they do over there, I guess." She meant NERV of course.

"She's busy?" Patrick asked.

"That, and she was hurt really badly a couple of months ago." Hikari finished her second omelet, and then all three of them turned their attention to the commotion at the center of the room.

"You idiot! You don't know what you're doing!" Asuka yelled at Shinji, as he tried to cook their assignment.

"Yes, I do!" he retorted. "I'm the one who cooks your breakfast every day!"

"Oh, that's why it sucks! Don't you know anything? There's not enough oil in that pan. Here..." Asuka grabbed the cooking oil and violently squirted it onto the skillet. Much of the oil missed the pan and promptly hit the flames on the range, causing the flames to suddenly roar out of control.

Shinji screamed as the flames reached over his head. In an instant, Hikari had already grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed it over the stove. Rei looked upwards from her book at the commotion but still remained seated.

"Are you okay?" Hikari asked Shinji.

Shinji's face was black with smoke. "I'm fine, no thanks to her!"

"It's your own fault!" Asuka said, with her hands at her hips. "You shouldn't have been so close!"

The teacher quickly moved from behind the desk and, still with magazine in hand, ran over to the scene of the fire, attempting to take charge. "Horaki-chan, please take Ikari-kun to the infirmary."  
"I can go myself!" Shinji scowled.  
"No." the teacher told him, somewhat nervously. "It's school policy. You have to be escorted."

"Come on, let's go," Hikari told Shinji as they both left the room. Everyone including the Americans and the still-seated Rei silently watched them go out. Asuka just folded her arms and blew her hair upwards. _What an idiot!_

The HomeEc teacher quickly directed Asuka to another table with another tabletop stove unit, and asked Vince (in poor English) to join her, as she quickly got cooking ingredients out of the refrigerator. She then addressed the still sitting Rei. "Ayanami-chan, please assist the American."

Rei, with a slight scowl on her face, put her book down and got up and walked to the table where Patrick was standing.

"Hi!" Patrick said cheerfully. Rei said nothing and just ignored him.

"So, what do we do now?" Vance asked Asuka.

"How would I know?" she said.

"I thought you were the cooking expert?"  
"Me? No, not my style. Here, do this!"

Asuka forcefully handed over the instructions for the lesson. The one page sheet was entirely in Japanese.

"I can't even read this! Here!" Vance handed it back to Asuka. She took one look at the sheet and then quickly crumpled up the paper and threw it in the wastebasket. "We don't need this." She tossed over to Vance two eggs which he just barely caught.  
"Here, just beat these things and I'll do the rest!"

Patrick tried to read the instruction sheet they were given but could only make out some of the characters. Rei just stood there scanning the ingredients.

"So anyway, do you know what we're doing?"

Rei didn't reply but took one of the eggs and carefully examined it. She then picked up the cutting knife and was about to attempt to cut open the egg with the knife when Patrick stopped her.

"Yikes! Here, let me get this." He quickly grabbed the egg out of her hand before she could cut it, then cracked it and then another one into a bowl and started scrambling. Once mixed together, he poured part of the eggs onto the pan as Rei silently watched the process.

"Um, have you ever cooked before?" Patrick asked her. She shook her head.

"Oh, well, I'll just do it then." _Maybe that's what Hikari meant by 'too much trouble.'_

"You're burning it," Vance said to Asuka, as she worked with the skillet.  
"Shut up. I know what I'm doing!"  
"No, right there, look at the edges. You have to flip it over."

She lied. "It's all right; I do this all the time!"

Vance saw through her and gave her a flashy salute. "Sure, your highness!"  
"Don't give me that attitude," she answered sharply. "I'll whip your ass tomorrow!"

"Oh, really?" Vance teased.

Having enough of his antics, Asuka gave him a raspberry while at the same time pulling down her right eyelid with her finger.

"I don't want to see your eyeball!" Vance griped. Patrick noticed what was happening from his station and quickly walked over to Vance and whispered in his ear.

"Dude, she just flipped you off!"

"What?"  
Patrick smirked. "That's how they do it here."

"Fine then! I can do that in German, too!" Vance quickly gave her a "European-style" bird, by holding his left hand against the pit of his right elbow and then pumping up with his right arm. Asuka promptly responded by flipping the half-cooked omelet straight from the pan onto his face.

"You bitch!" Vance said as he pulled the eggs off his face. Asuka just laughed as nearly the whole class was now watching them.

He pointed his finger at her. "You're dead meat tomorrow!" Asuka just grinned widely and batted her eyelashes at him.

Patrick turned back to his own station after the commotion and found that Rei had finished with the omelet. It didn't look burned on the surface but something seemed odd: It looked much lumpier than it should have been.

"Oh, you're done?" She nodded silently.

"Well, let's try it." Patrick picked up a fork and tried a bite. What he tasted next could only be described as beyond horror.

Trying very hard to be polite, with a smile he quickly gulped the monstrosity down as Rei curiously watched him. He then chased it down with several glasses of water.

"Um, what did you place inside?" he asked her.

"I used the provided ingredients."

He looked at the station and saw nothing left of the toppings. "They're gone!"  
"Yes, I used all of them," she flatly replied.  
"All of them? At once?"

"I did not use the pork."

"Where's that then?"  
"Trash."

"What?! Why did you do that?"  
Rei looked away from him. "I don't eat meat."

Dr. Ritsuko Akagi was in her lab office at NERV when Vice Commander Futsuyuki entered. Visibly distressed, he walked up to her desk.

"Dr. Akagi, if someone was not actually a pilot candidate how could they become capable of piloting an EVA?"

"By pilot candidate, you mean in the way that we've defined pilot candidates so far?" She looked directly at him as she spoke and he silently nodded, meaning that he knew the real, unspoken meaning of her question.

"In that case," she said, "you'd have to have some way to spoof the EVA."

"How could you do that?" Futsuyuki asked.

"Unknown," the scientist replied. "At least, other than the dummy plug we're working on. You can make adjustments to the EVA but on a scale that I'm unfamiliar with. Perhaps the pilot can be given certain therapies but I'm not sure what those would be."

"Can you look into this?" he asked her.

Ritsuko fumbled with her cigarette case. "I'll pose the question to the MAGI and see what they determine."

"Do it please, doctor." The Vice commander then left the room.

Ritsuko found her lighter and lighted up one cigarette. It was normally against NERV policy not to smoke anywhere in the GeoFront facility, but she had deactivated the smoke detectors in her lab for quite some time. Besides, smoking cleared her mind, and she needed a clear mind for this problem.

That afternoon, all of the male students in class 2-A stumbled out to the school's athletic field. All of them dressed out for P.E. in white t-shirts and shorts (with the exception of Toji, who never seemed to take off his track suit). Patrick and Vance joined them, also wearing the school's athletic wear. Outside it was particularly hot and humid.

The P.E. instructor blew his whistle and all of the boys formed rows. "All right, everyone! Get down and give me twenty pushups!"

The group of students all went prone and started on pushups, many of them doing so with some groaning. The boys start to count out the pushups as they did them slowly.

"1......2.............3......"

Patrick and Vance just smiled at each other and had the same thought. _Time to show them up a bit. _The both immediately hit the ground and started quickly pumping out pushups.

"1,2,3,4,5,6..."

"4........5........6........."

''13,14,15,16,17,18…"

The two boys aggressively pounded out pushups as the rest of the class struggled just to perform the instructed twenty sets. Suzahara took a glance at the two Americans and started rapidly doing pushups to try and catch up to the two Americans. After a couple of minutes, however, even the athletic Toji couldn't keep up with them.

Vance and Patrick just kept pumping them out. "55...56...57...58..."

Some of the Japanese boys finished their twenty, and some were still working on it (including Shinji), but at this point most of them just stopped and stared at the two Americans.

"83...84...85...86..."

By the time they were finished, all of the Japanese boys were standing up and staring at the two machines on the ground.

'97...98...99...100!" They got up, cleaned off their hands, and give each other a series of high-fives.

"Ah!! There's nothing like a refreshing set of pushups!" Vance exclaimed.  
"True that!" seconded Patrick.

After seeing the display of American athletic prowess, the PE instructor just stood there in shock along with his students. He decided that he couldn't let this go by so easily.

"All right, you pussies! Show the flag here! I want another 80 out of everyone, now!!"

Many of the students were bellyaching, Toji especially so as he did more than 50 pushups to try to keep up with the two Americans. Now he would have to do more than anyone else. "Oh, jeez, this totally sucks!" he said. He turned to Shinji. "Hey, where's Aida?"

"He took off again."

"He's probably at his hiding spot. Bastard! At least suffer with the rest of us!" Toji and Shinji got started on their set of 80. It was going to be a long afternoon.

While the rest of the class did their punishment, Vance decided to run around the track for fun, while Patrick wondered around and then spied Kensuke Aida hiding behind a bush. He quietly walked over to where he was hiding.

"Hey, Aida-kun, what are you up to?"

"Ssshhh! Not so loud!" He was highly focused on his video camera's view piece while at the same time preparing his still camera.

"By the way, where are all the girls? You don't take PE together?"

"Look through here." He handed Patrick a handheld scope.

Patrick looked through the lens and spied the girls of Class 2-A inside the gymnasium across from them. All of the girls were lined up against the wall as each one in turn performed gymnastics routines on a balance beam. Each one of the girls was dressed in long sleeved, magnetic blue, very snugly fitting leotard. Patrick took a deep breath. "Oh, wow."

"I know," Kensuke responded. "This video is going to make me a fortune!"

They both watched as several girls took their turns on the beam. Patrick noticed that Kensuke got very interested when it was Asuka's turn.

"Oh, Soryu-chan!" he said, as his still camera was now also turned to the open window.

Through the lens Patrick could see Asuka jumping up on the balance beam. At first she kidded around with the girls standing against the wall. Then the look on her face became much more serious as she walked down the beam and performed a series of skills with her hands. Finally she swung around on the balls of her feet, did a spectacular double-back somersault and flipped off the beam. Most of the girls watching clapped excitedly.

"She's pretty good!" observed Patrick.

"Yeah, she's great! If I ever need anything from Ikari-kun I know just how to get it!"

"Where's Rei?"  
"Ayanami-chan? She's sitting there against the wall. She usually doesn't participate much. Too bad, really."

Patrick trained the scope on her and watched her sitting silently against the wall, not speaking to anyone, and looking at anything in particular. Then apparently from having her name called, she got up off the floor, rubbed chalk on her feet, and walked to the beam.

"She's getting up!"

"It's my lucky day!" said Kensuke. "Ikari's going to pay big for this!"

Rei quietly mounted the beam and very gently walked down half way with her arms down at her sides. Patrick saw that most of the girls just ignored her, but Asuka stood there, arms folded, and glared at her.

She concentrated a bit and carefully leaned forward, bringing her arms in front of her. Then she gracefully raised her left leg behind her while balancing on her right, until the left leg was at 180 degrees: a perfect arabesque. Patrick found himself completely mesmerized by her.

_Oh my God, she's beautiful._

"Hey, what's up?" Patrick was startled as he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. Another hand fell on Kensuke's shoulder, as he then promptly panicked and dropped his video camera.

"Shit!" Kensuke yelled.

Patrick turned up to see Vance, clearly pleased at catching his roommate's voyeurism.

Loud squeals were heard across the yard as the girls inside the gym suddenly realized that they were being spied on. Several girls ran to get outside of view as Hikari and Asuka both called out of the open window "Aida! You pervert!!! You are _so_ dead!" Rei just stood there on the beam, puzzled at her classmates' sudden reactions.


	5. Chapter 4: The Train

CHAPTER FOUR

WEDNESDAY

In Central Dogma, the spacious NERV EVA operations control center, Major Katsuragi spoke in front of a series of giant video screens, each featuring the image of one of the five Evangelion pilots present. All of them were wearing their plug suits.

"Okay, everyone!" Her tone was much more serious than yesterday. "This is a simulated training exercise. We will pair into teams of two: Shinji and Asuka on defense, Vance and Patrick on offense. Rei, you are on standby in EVA-00, and we'll give you special instructions."

"Roger!" they all replied, in whatever language they were comfortable with.

Misato addressed the two Americans. "Yankees, your objective is to penetrate to Central Dogma from the Tokyo-3 fortress city. EVA-01 and 02 will try to stop you. After the first round we will switch, and EVA-03 and 04 will be on defense. Hopefully you can learn something from the experience."

The two American pilots nodded as she finished. Misato turned around and faced the other controllers on the command platform. In addition to the controller staff, Dr. Akagi was also present. The Commander and Vice Commander were observing from Commander Ikari's own platform above them.

"Everyone begins on my mark," Misato called out. "3...2...1...Go!"

"Okay dude, rock and roll!" called out Vance.

"Right," replied Patrick. "Ready to kick some rice-eating ass!"

"I heard that!" said Asuka. All of their audio was on an open channel, so every pilot could hear each other.

"Don't think we're pushovers!" said Shinji.

The first round of training consisted of a combat exercise that took place in a simulated environment. Each Evangelion pilot was present in his or her entry plug, but the actual battle was waged in a virtual world created and managed by NERV's artificial intelligence, the MAGI trinity of super computers. NERV controllers and staff were monitoring the exercise from Central Dogma, where all of the simulated action was portrayed on very life-like computer-generated images on giant viewing screens.

"Okay, Forrestal, just like we went over it," said Vance.

"Got it, Double-V!" Patrick replied.

At that, both the simulated Units 03 and 04 ran full speed in unison towards the simulated EVA Units 01 and 02.

Asuka tried to read the situation. "Shinji! They're trying to do a double-press!"

"Ready for them!" he called back.

As the two visiting EVAs got within twenty meters of Units 01 and 02, Vance ordered "Break!" EVA-03 jumped high above the pair of Japanese EVAs while Patrick's Unit 04 went low and slid into Unit 01, like a baseball player stealing a base.

"I got you!" Asuka's Unit 02 jumped up to meet EVA-03 on the way down and both EVAs tumbled into the ground, rolling around and struggling in the simulated Tokyo-3 environment.

Shinji was less successful at evading the trap. "What? Oh, No!" Unit 04 had slid right into both of Unit 01's legs and flipped it over. He called for help.

"Asuka!" Shinji cried.

"Shinji, you dumb-ass! He tricked you! Unnghh!" EVA-03 decked EVA-02 hard with its fists and threw Unit 02 down into the city streets, wrecking about half the street in the process.

Misato was observing all of this, arms folded. "Wow, impressive! Finally someone who can teach Asuka a lesson."

Asuka wasn't so sure. "No one puts me flat on my back!" she yelled, as she withdrew her Progressive Knife from its sheath and charged at the black Evangelion. Unit 03 drew its own knife and met her attack straight on. "I see she gives as good as she gets!" Vance quipped.

Elsewhere in the simulated Tokyo-3, Shinji worked at getting loose from Unit 04's wrestler's grip. "Roll over, roll over, roll over, there, got loose!" Unit 01 jumped out and started to run for cover.

"No you don't!" said Patrick as he pursued closely.

Unit 01 turned around a corner and then quickly withdrew its own Prog Knife. Just as Unit 04 passed the corner, the purple EVA came at him directly. "Here, take that"! Both of them got into a melee and started bouncing each other into nearby buildings.

Units 02 and 03 had everyone's attention in the control room

"Hey, you're really aggressive!" said Vance, as Unit 03 parried another Prog Knife thrust by the Red Unit 02.

"Get back here, you asshole!" Asuka cursed.

"Oh, testy, aren't we?" Vance playfully replied.

"No one beats Asuka!" she shot back. Unit 02 lunged but Vance's EVA caught the thrust and then swung EVA-02 straight into a building. Even thought this was a simulated exercise, the biofeedback from the neural interface was still feeding back the pain the Evangelion unit faced from the outside trauma. "Ow!"

"Ouch, that had to hurt!" observed Lt Hyuga, one of the bridge controllers.

"Unit 03 seems to have the upper hand," said Dr. Akagi.

Shinji saw that Unit 02 was in trouble. "Asuka, I'm coming to help!"

"Stay the hell away! I can handle this!"

Vance overheard the two. "Just as I thought" he said. "Let's see you handle this!" As Asuka charged again, EVA-03 quickly grabbed EVA-02's ankle and in one motion flipped it 270 degrees in the air and into a water tower.

Asuka was seeing her battle plan turn into a complete disaster. "THAT'S IT NOW I'M REALLY PISSED OFF!!!"

Shinji tried to move his Unit 01 over to Asuka's side of the battlespace, but Patrick had again put EVA-01 into a wrestler's grip. "Asuka!" Shinji continued to cry out. EVA-01 struggled and finally grabbed hold of a large truck in the street and threw it at EVA-04's face. Patrick was shocked by the blow, enough to let go and EVA-01 broke free.

"What?" Patrick said. "How'd he do that?"

"Good move, Shinji!" complimented Misato.

"Dang, he's better than he looks!" said Patrick

Asuka continued to make blind charges at the black Unit 03, as Vance continued to taunt her. "Uh, oh, she's a violent type! Here, here!" She, on the other hand, hadn't been so pissed off since the Seventh Angel. "DON'T MOCK ME! YOU'RE GOING TO GET THRASHED!!!" But Asuka's aggressiveness played right into Vance's hands. "Just like I expected. Come to papa!"

At this point, Misato decided the Americans were perhaps having a bit too much fun, and threw in another card into the mix. "Rei, Now!" she ordered, and now the blue EVA-00 moved in from the outside border of the environment and moved to join Unit 01 and -02.

"Hey, no fair! It's 3 on 2 now!" Patrick protested.

"Life's not fair, Patrick. Learn to deal with it," said the Major.

Patrick took a good look at the new opponent, and saw the sniper rifle Unit 00 carried. "Double V, look out! She's got long range weaponry."

"Point taken!" Vance replied, as Unit 03 violently threw Unit 02 into another wall.

Asuka was shaken and all the more furious at the beating she was getting. "THAT'S IT YOU BASTARD THAT'S THE LAST TIME YOU TOUCH ME!"

"Asuka, calm down!" Misato warned. "If you lose your temper, you're going to get defeated"

"THAT'S _SO_ NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!" Asuka was shouting but her confidence had quietly fallen. She maneuvered EVA-02 into another charge on Unit 03.

"A little closer." whispered Vance as he watched her EVA move towards his own.

"Asuka!" Shinji started to move his unit to her side of the battlefield.

"SHUT UP SHINJI LET ME PUT THIS GUY DOWN!" She marshaled all her remaining emotional energy and with knife in hand, charged again at Unit 03. The moment Vance had prepared for had come. Vance quietly counted the seconds as Unit 02 approached him. "Now!" he said.

As EVA-02 thrust its knife at EVA-03, Vance quickly moved his Evangelion to the side, took his own Prog Knife and quickly stabbed it right into the upper chest of Unit 02. Simulated LCL came crashing out of the wound. The biofeedback from the simulated attack was intense - Asuka screamed in absolute pain.

Shinji called out "Asuka! Asuka!" Distracted by Asuka's fall, EVA-04 elbowed his EVA in the face, and pushed Unit 01 into the street.

"Take that!" said Patrick, who got his own Prog Knife into a killing position. "First down, now out." Then something distracted him. "Wait a minute!"

"Ayanami!" exclaimed Shinji as EVA-00 moved in front of him as a shield to allow his own EVA unit to back away from Patrick. As they did this, Patrick just stood there looking at Unit 00.

Misato called out to Patrick. "EVA-04, what are you doing? Pursue the target!"

"Rei? What, oh, yeah." Patrick stammered.

Too late. "Gotcha!" EVA-01 took aim with a newly-acquired Pallet Gun and hit EVA-04 squarely in the chest. Unit 04 immediately went down, and Patrick could feel the burning pain in his chest.

Vance in EVA-03 was nearly done with his opponent, who was backed against a building, bleeding LCL. "Time for the kill...uh, oh." Suddenly Vance started to feel faint, dizzy as he felt the sensation of the EVA plug swimming around him_. Oh, no, not now!_

Maya, one of the controllers, noticed it first. "EVA-04 pilot is suffering loss of consciousness. Vital signs declining 34%!"

Dr. Akagi looked at the pilot monitors. "What is going on?" she whispered to herself.

Asuka saw the opportunity and took it. "GOT YOU!" EVA-02 thrust a Progressive Knife right across EVA-03's neck, slicing its throat in half. EVA-03 immediately went down in a thrashing orange pool of LCL.

Misato knew that even in the simulation there was a risk from the suddenness of Asuka's attack. "Quickly, cut the feedback signal to the pilot"

"EVA-03 and 04 are both down!" pronounced Lt Hyuga.

"Stop the simulation! Recover all pilots!" she ordered.

Ten minutes later in the pilot ready room, Misato confronted her charges. She looked directly at Shinji and Asuka. "What the hell was that?"

"What are you yelling at us for?" defended Asuka.

"That has got to be the sloppiest fighting I've seen since I've been here!" Misato shouted. "You guys let yourselves get caught off guard by rookies! You defeated all these angels and you nearly get nailed by a couple of cowboys!"

Asuka was nonchalant about it. "Hey, we won. What's the big deal?"

"You won because Vinson hesitated!" said Misato, still angry. "You were damn lucky."

"I wouldn't call it luck," Asuka countered.

"Then I'd call it mercy," Misato replied. "If this was real we'd all be dead by now."

"Give them credit, Major," chimed in Vance. "They did get the advantage of us!"

Misato turned to the Americans. "That's right, both of you just froze when you need to push in the kill. Forrestal?"

"Yes?"

She looked directly at him. "Why didn't you hit EVA-00 when you had the chance?"

"Well," Patrick looked at Rei and then back at Misato. "I wasn't sure if she posed an immediate threat."

"What do you mean posed an immediate threat?" Misato yelled at him. "It doesn't matter! This is a kill or be killed situation, no mercy on your opponent. At least the others understand that part of the deal!"

In Commander Ikari's office at Central Dogma, both the commander and vice commander reviewed the day's simulation. "What's your evaluation?" Gendo Ikari asked Dr. Futsuyuki.

"Vinson fights very well," he surmised. "He's clearly been trained to a high degree. His skills are at least the equal of Miss Soryu."

"And the other one?"

"Not as much skill but he is very comfortable in the EVA, much like Ikari-kun. With a high synch rate he can compensate for a great many faults." He stood up from his chair, and looked away from the commander. "Together they make an excellent team, one that almost won. "

"As far as I'm concerned they won this match," Gendo said. "It's only because the Vinson boy hesitated that EVA-02 was able to get the better of them." He took off his glasses and placed them on the table, then folded his hands. "The next round is the live round: intensify opposition. Don't let the Americans have a cake walk over us."

"Yes, commander," Futsuyuki nodded.

In the Male Pilots' changing room, Patrick approached Vance as they were changing out of their plug suits. Vance wore a black suit with red stripes, which Patrick thought was a bit ironic as Asuka's plug suit pattern was the opposite pattern.

"Dude, are you OK?" Patrick asked.

Vance looked tired but still alert. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just got the wind kicked out of me!"

"Damn! You almost had her!" Patrick said.

"No kidding! Just a couple of seconds faster and this would have been our match," Vance replied. "Ikari's better than he looks, though."

Patrick had to agree. "His technique's not perfect, but he fights with heart, not the head. "

"Sometimes that's more dangerous," Vance commented. "Don't forget he's had more angel kills than the others. And also…"

"Yeah?" Patrick asked.

"I know you like the weird girl," Vance chided. "But don't let affect your fighting!"

Patrick had to admit it was obvious. "Sorry, couldn't help it!"

Vance was more serious. "Better get it under control next time."

After changing back into his school clothes, Patrick managed to find his way out of the maze that was the GeoFront and get back to the front gate. As he approached the exit gates, he saw Rei just as she was exiting. She was dressed in her school uniform. Patrick called to her. "Rei? Rei! Wait up!"

Rei looked at Patrick at first, who was waving at her, but just kept walking out of the facility.

"Wait up! Here!" Patrick ran to catch up with the blue-haired girl. Once he reached her, he caught his breath, but Rei just stood there and stared at him.

"Um, uh, I've been meaning to talk to you since school."

"Why?" she asked.

"Why?" Patrick gave a nervous laugh. "Well, I don't know, it's really that as we're now all training together, I'd just like to get to you know you better, you know."

"It is not really necessary," she said plainly.

"But it still might be nice!"

"I must go now." She turned and headed out of the entrance.

"No, wait!" Patrick called. "Please hang on a second!" He almost thought to grab her, but then held back his hand.

"Please allow me to go." Rei looked sternly at Patrick.

_Oops, pushed it too far_, he thought. "Oh, okay. I'm sorry if I was rude."

Rei said nothing but just turned around and headed towards the train station. As she walked away, Patrick called after her. "Look, let's go out sometime...!" She ignored the invitation and just kept walking away.

_Well, that didn't go well_, Patrick thought to himself. _I guess there's always school. But maybe Asuka's right; it's not worth the trouble. Still, I can't help but be charmed by her. Maybe_…

He watched Rei walk to the train station entrance, turn a corner and go out of sight. Just after she went around the corner he ran after her.

Patrick ran to the station and looked around. After a few minutes of searching around the outgoing tracks he managed to get a glimpse of her blue hair moving onto a boarding train. He quickly ran for the same train and managed to leap on board another car before the doors closed.

The American boy walked through a series of cars on the now moving train, bumping into several passengers on his way. None of them said anything, though a couple of people gave him rude looks. After a couple of minutes he reached the front car of the train and spotted her sitting on a bench in the middle of the car. Careful to not let himself be seen, he grabbed an open seat near the rear entrance.

Auska and Shinji walked out of the GeoFront a few moments later. They slowly made their way to the train station, talking along the way. Auska was still upset over the afternoon's match.

"Misato-san is so stupid! I can't believe that she'd chew us out over a match that we WON."

"She probably just thinks that we're not taking it seriously enough," Shinji suggested.

"Oh, right...she's probably just got PMS!" Asuka retorted.

"Asuka?"

"Hmm?" Asuka purred. Shinji had noticed that she was suddenly over her bad mood.

"I always thought you were German," Shinji told her.

"Well...I grew up there, so I really think of myself as German. It's my first language and all. But actually, I'm a US Citizen," she said plainly.

"Have you ever been to America?" Shinji asked her.

"A few times," she said. "Mostly we went to see relatives or on a vacation. There's not much to see these days. The period after Second Impact was pretty bad over there."

"I see."

"But I LOVE the food!!!" she said, her eyes wide open. "Oh, steak, and ribs, and crab cakes, and pizza, and hamburgers. REAL hamburgers, with real cows in them, not the fakes they have here!"

"What about Japanese food?" Shinji asked.

"It sucks over there. A lot of times they just slap sweet soy sauce on something and call it Japanese." "Ugh!" said Shinji.

"Yep," Asuka replied. "But still, I could pretty much eat my way through the whole country, given the chance."

"Are all the Americans like those two?" Shinji asked.

"Unclean, disorganized, and aggressive," she said. "Plus they like everything big and showy, no delicacy. Bad bathroom habits, too. But those two have one big difference over the others."

"What's that?" Shinji asked. They had reached the station entrance.

"They both speak Japanese," she answered as they both reached for their train passes. "Nearly everyone there only speaks English."

"That's quite a coincidence." Shinji observed.

Asuka went through the turnstile first. "_Baka Shinji!_ They KNEW they were coming here!" Asuka darted out of the other side and Shinji, distracted by her, ran right into the lowering gates. Alarms buzzed as he tried to extract himself from the metal jaws.

Auska watched the pathetic struggle of the other pilot and slapped her palm to her face. "What am I going to do with you?"

In the train car Forrestal spent the next 10 minutes just watching Rei read her book. He reached into his backpack and grabbed a travel brochure to hide behind in case she looked around the car, but she never looked up from reading.

_Must be interesting reading,_ he thought.

After several stops most of the train car emptied of the night-time commuters going back home or for entertainment elsewhere. He had no real idea where he was, but Patrick was just determined that he was going to follow the First Child for as long as he could.

Finally at one stop a heavy-set fellow in a suit sat at the bench next to Rei. She didn't budge, but continued to read her book without even glancing at the man. Patrick kept watching and started to notice that the heavy guy was slowly making his way down the bench and in Rei's direction.

The man on the bench looked about fifty, with unkempt hair and a flush red face. While he wore a dark black suit, in some contrast to the other passengers, he was more slovenly in his appearance. Just as he reached the area adjacent to Rei, he pulled out what looked like a news magazine out of his jacket pocket and started reading it. And Patrick watched as his hand suddenly landed on Rei's thigh.

On the intrusion, Rei silently jumped up with her book bag and moved across the train car to another bench by the front of the car. To avoid being seen Patrick quickly dodged under his travel guide but she didn't seem to notice him. Patrick then saw the old pervert cross the train car and again sit on the same bench as her.

He looked around. The car was sparsely filled with passengers, but they were sleeping, involved in reading something, or, unbelievably, pretending not to notice Rei's attempt to evade the creep. There were no policemen in the car, and the train driver (if there was one at all) was hidden behind the front door.

Clearly the pervert had noticed the lack of attention in the car and he slid closer to Rei on the bench. She had already moved to the front edge of the bench, still reading her book, but now aware that she was being pursued. The creep moved closer until he was right next to her. Magazine still in one hand, he silently slid his other one to touch her. Suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Excuse me, but leave her alone!" Patrick was standing up next to him.

The old pervert turned and spouted at him "Screw off, kid! Don't you know is rude to talk in a train car!"

"I think she doesn't want you to touch her!" Patrick said loudly.

"I think you're in my fucking way!" the man cursed.

The creep tried to stand up to strike Patrick but Patrick swung his backpack into his face, pushing him off the bench and onto the train floor. With the man struggling to get up, Patrick quickly grabbed Rei's wrist and pulled her off the bench and down the train car, backpack in his other hand. He raced through the back doors into the next car.

"Quick, this way!" he told Rei. As she saw him, her eyes were wide with surprise.

Patrick looked behind and saw the image of the creep, face now even brighter red, rushing toward them, through the train door window. "Foreign bastard!" he called out.

Moments later the train came to the next stop. Having no idea where he was, Patrick looked for the next open door. The door chime sounded and other passengers started to get up out of their seats.

"Here, out the door!" Patrick pulled Rei through the nearest door and out into the station platform, both of them running as they went outside the car.

Patrick didn't try to look back, he just ran as fast as he could through the station and to the exit, dragging Rei along with him. Only as they reached the exit turnstiles did they finally stop. Rei released herself from his grip and reached for her train pass.

Patrick turned to her. "Are you okay?" Rei silently nodded.

"You can't be too careful, I guess," he said. "I'm sorry, I was rude again."

"It is okay," she replied.

_No 'thank you' huh?_ "You're more than welcome." He fumbled and found his own train pass. "Let me take you back home. Are you far from here?"

"Not far," she said. "I can walk there in 20 minutes."

"Good. We don't need to get on the train again. Besides, I don't want your family to worry about you here."

"I am able to walk by myself," she said.

Patrick shook his head. "Oh, no. There's no way I can let you walk alone now."

"It is not necessary," Rei replied. "The way is well lit and I will be safe here."

"So was the train," Patrick retorted. "At least let me walk with you to your place."

Rei looked at him for a moment and then just walked through the turnstile and out the station. Patrick fumbled with his own train pass, jogging to keep up with her.

"Umm, then this way, huh?" he said, as she just starting walking down the street. She said nothing but didn't try to move away from him either.

Misato sat in her office playing over the day's simulation again, when she heard the door swing open. _How rude not to knock. Could only be one person…_She swung her chair around and faced the door.

"Well, how did it go today?" Kaji said to her with a smirk on his face.

Misato thought to chew him out for the interruption, but she had enough trouble today as it was. Besides, she could use someone to talk to. "Not well."

"I heard our side won," said Kaji.  
"Just barely. Their pilots are very well-trained; otherwise they wouldn't have gotten the jump on us like they did." Misato took a swig at her coffee.

Kaji leaned on the wall and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Worried that we might not be the only winning team?"  
"Actually, I'm more worried abut Asuka," said Misato. "She's too overconfident. It's not good for her, and it could get her killed in the wrong situation."

"She's a smart girl," Kaji defended. "And very determined. No doubt deep inside, she realizes the problem herself. I'm sure she'll work out something."

Misato changed the subject. "You said you met the Vinson boy earlier? What was that like?"

Kaji now sat down and reached for his cigarette pack. He knew he wasn't supposed to smoke, but needed a nic hit to think. Besides, he knew Ritsuko deactivated the smoke detectors in Misato's office as well as her own. "NERV Intelligence sent me to Admiral Vinson's home in Maine six months ago. He was in the process of being appointed security chief of NERV North American operations, for both 1st and 2nd Branch."

Both knew that NERV, the UN agency for fighting the Angels, had several worldwide branches in addition to the main Tokyo-3 location. 1st Branch, or NERV-1, was in Massachusetts, on the site of the old Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2nd Branch, or NERV-2, was in Groom Lake, Nevada, the location of the much-fabled "Area 51" of UFO lore. 3rd Branch was located in Germany, with facilities in both Berlin and Hamburg, and was where Kaji, along with Asuka, was most recently posted.

Kaji continued. "As part of the vetting process, I met with Vinson and his wife, and I met their 14-year old son. Captain Vinson was a highly decorated special operations officer in the U.S. Navy SEALs, prior to coming to the UN unified military. Unlike many of the American military, he didn't seem to have issues with UN control."

"There wasn't much choice given at the time," Misato commented.

"Since coming to the UN military, he continued his outstanding record, seeing action in several conflicts from the 2nd Impact aftermath. Then about three years ago he requested re-assignment to NERV."

"He wanted a break?" Misato asked.

"Perhaps," said Kaji. "In any case, he had many endorsements for the position and no apparent links to any type of nationalistic or anti-UN groups, so it was certain he would get the assignment, and a promotion." Kaji finished his first cigarette and proceeded to start another one. "My visit was just to get a feel for the man at home, then report back to my superiors."

Kaji offered Misato a cigarette, which she politely declined. "What was your observation?" she asked.

"Both him and his wife were very professional and courteous. But who I found intriguing at the time was the boy."

"Vance?"

"Yes. When I first met him, he seemed very much like a regular teenage American boy, strong and friendly, interested in technology and girls."

"And then?"

"At Captain Vinson's suggestion, we went on a hunting trip in the woods outside their house. Deer hunting." Kaji looked at her.

"Deer hunting? Isn't that illegal?" Misato exclaimed.

"Not over there. It's practically religion in some parts. Still, I went along with the two of them. Within an afternoon he went 5 for 5." Kaji finished his second cigarette.

"Who did? Vance?"

"Yes. Five shots, five deer. All clean hits."

"Wow. That sounds difficult."

"It was. Deer hunting requires a combination of accuracy, stealth, and strategy. The boy had them in spades."

"A combat prodigy," Misato said. "Like Asuka."

"Not like Asuka," answered the NERV agent. "Asuka is highly intelligent and the product of a very considerable amount of training, but she still sees the struggles with the Angels as one big video game. Vance, on the other hand, is a born hunter. There was a sort of ruthless quality about him. I thought to myself at the time that, if he were Japanese, he'd be the reincarnation of Kintaro." Kaji referred to the boy warrior of Japanese lore.

"But ideal for an EVA pilot," Misato concluded. Kaji said nothing but nodded. They both knew the meaning of her comment. Clearly the Americans had been at their own EVA project with significant effort.

"Did you report to NERV on the boy?" Misato asked him.

"No," Kaji replied. "The issue at hand was his father, and I saw nothing suspicious about him. However, now that the boy is here I'd think I'd have to re-evaluate everything I saw."

Misato crossed her legs and thought a bit. "Did NERV intelligence have any idea that the Americans had a secret pilot program before those two showed up?"

"Not to this extent," Kaji said, fingering his cigarette case. He tried not to go for a third. "They were quite skilled at hiding it. But there is one other issue regarding their pilots."

"What's that?"

"Dr. Forrestal was on record as having a 14-year old daughter, not a son. Supposedly she lived with her father at the NERV-2 facility," Kaji told her.

"Where is she now?" Misato asked.

"Unknown." Kaji replied.

For the next 20 minutes Rei kept walking down a series of streets as Patrick followed her. She said not a word, but rather robotically moved into areas that seemed much more run down than the parts of Tokyo-3 that Patrick had seen so far. Finally they reached a series of old apartment complexes that looked abandoned to Patrick. Rei walked into the stairway of one of the high rises, climbed up three flights of stairs, and then went onto a run-down hallway of an equally run-down building.

"So," Patrick said nervously "This is your place, huh?"

She nodded, as she opened the door and walked in. Patrick silently leaned in after her, careful not to go too far inside.

"Ni….what the heck?" He looked around and saw almost nothing. Rei's apartment was as drab and dull as a warehouse, with only a bed, a small kitchen, and equally small shower. There was nothing on the walls, no TV, radio, or anything else electronic.

A large amount of unopened mail was strewn all over the floor. Medication was spilled over one counter, and there were dirty bandages all over. Everything was painted (or was it painted at all?) a dull grey.

Rei was totally oblivious to his shock as she went about putting her book bag away. Patrick took a careful look as he stepped inside.

"Rei?"

She didn't respond, but just kept unloading her book bag.

"Rei?" he asked again as he stepped further inside. "Do you live alone here?"

"Yes." She put her book bag on the small desk.

Patrick just looked at her. "Your parents. You don't live with your parents?"

She said nothing.

"Um...you have family close by, right?"

She didn't answer for a bit, then without looking at him she said softly "I do not have a family."

Patrick was silent at first as he was still trying to absorb all of this. Then he said "Oh, you're an orphan then? I'm sorry, I'm being rude again. Shinji had told me that Commander Ikari took care of you."

Still without looking at him she asked "What else did Ikari say?"

"He said that you sort of kept to yourself, but that they still considered you one of them."

"I am an EVA pilot," she stated as she walked over to the sink.

"Yeah, and so am I, but there's more to life than that."

She started to wash her hands. "It is my purpose."

"Purpose?" he asked.

"Yes, I was made for EVA." She turned off the water.

"I'm sure you are," he said, "But not just EVA all the time right?"

She turned to him and said "EVA is my only reason for being."

_Well, there's dedication for you,_ Patrick thought. "Rei?"

Rei didn't respond but she was looking at him now. Without really noticing, Patrick sat down on her bed. There was only one small chair in the place. "Rei, you've been a pilot for a while, right?" She nodded silently.

Patrick nervously ran his fingers through his hair. "Well, I've been meaning to ask this of someone, and I'm not sure the others would understand this. Double-V certainly doesn't. Perhaps you do. Well, here goes."

The boy took a deep breath and then everything he said next came out rapidly. "I've been piloting the EVA for the last three months. And before three months ago, my life was completely normal, I mean, I was just some normal kid living in California having a normal life. It was sort of boring actually, but safe boring. Then I started having these strange nightmares about being inside of some sort of chamber, and having some ghost-thing come after me. A while after that, this girl knocks on my door in the middle of the night, and then all of a sudden she just starts going crazy in the cabin, like she's totally freaked out. She starts screaming out loud 'What's dead is alive! What's alive is dead!' and my uncle has to stun her to get her to calm down. Then all of these special ops-type guys just rush in with helicopters and stuff, and they take her away in a stretcher. Do you follow me so far?"

She just stared at him. If she was confused by his tale she didn't seem to show it.

He continued. "Then I get this phone call from my dad, who I haven't heard from in, like, a year and he says 'There's been an emergency, you need to get to Nevada now!' And then he just hangs up! I get flown in the middle of the night to the middle of nowhere and then they tell me I have get into this EVA thing to, like, save the world."

"Anyway," he went on, "before I left I ask my uncle who that girl was and he says 'sorry to hide this from you, son, but that's your twin sister Erin.' What the hell!? I didn't know I even had a twin sister! I mean, my mom died early on, but no one said anything about a sister. Not my dad or anyone else. It's like _Star Wars_, or _The_ _Parent Trap_, or something, but anyway, she was the pilot of EVA-04 before I did it and she was fine for a while and then suddenly she freaks out, enough that they had her put in some kind of mental hospital. "

Patrick was still talking very fast, and was very emotional by this point. "Anyway, what I'm getting at is, well, whenever I'm in the EVA, in the plug, I really get this sort of creepy feeling, like, well, like it's ALIVE or something, like it's got thoughts of its own." He looked up and faced her. "Do you know what I'm talking about?"

She just stood there with a blank expression on her face. Patrick was clearly embarrassed by his outburst. "Uh...well…umm…"

"You should talk to Ikari-kun," she said without emotion. "You have a lot in common."

"Really? But, do you understand what I mean about with the EVA?" he asked. "I really don't want to get freaked out like my sister, but..." Patrick turned away from her as he spoke.

"You need to listen before you can hear," she said to him, almost like a whisper.

"What?"

"The EVA." She repeated. "You need to listen to her before you can hear." She started walking around the apartment. Patrick really didn't quite know how to react to what Rei just said, but just sat there on the bed.

"I am going to take a shower." She sounded a bit puzzled. "I don't think I'm supposed to let you look at me while I do this."

Patrick turned around and noticed Rei standing there wearing nothing but just her school blouse and bath slippers. "Whoa! No, no, no, don't mind me at all. I'll just be going! Sorry to intrude!" He hastily ran out of Rei's place and down the stairs. Rei looked after Patrick as he ran down, still only dressed in her shirt.

_He might know already._

Patrick ran out of the apartment building and onto the empty street. _Whew! That was a close one! Still, maybe like 30 seconds more and I might have seen the rated R version. But how can she live like that?_ He looked up at Rei's apartment as he could just barely catch a glimpse of her through the veranda window.


	6. Chapter 5: Something In Common

THURSDAY

Early that morning, Patrick found himself lying in bed somewhere between being asleep and being awake. Unable to fall back to sleep and unwilling to pull himself out of bed, his mind drifted to the one thing that he had mostly been thinking about since he had come to Tokyo-3.

In his mind, he pictured the two of them sitting together on a small wooden dock on the shore of _Ashinoko_, Lake Ashi. The sun was going down and a gentle breeze was swaying the water.

Rei sat on the edge of the dock next to him. She was wearing a white sundress, along with a white hat with a blue ribbon. She let her bare feet gently skim the water beneath the landing they sat on.

"I'm glad you're here," she said to him as they watched the sun going down among the surrounding mountains.

"I'm glad I could come back," he replied. "I know how challenging it is to fight the Angels. Right now NERV needs all the help it can get."

He looked at her as she watched the reddening skyline. "You don't know how worried I was about you, that something might happen," he said.

"It has been difficult," she told him. "But I have Ikari-kun and the others to support me." She gently slipped her tiny, delicate hand into his." And now, I have you, too."

They looked at each other for a long moment, and Patrick found himself lost in her deep red eyes. He squeezed her hand a little. "Everything's going to be alright now."

Rei gave him a little smile. "I know, Patrick-kun." Feeling the magic in the air, she closed her eyes as he moved in to kiss her. Just as he reached her lips, Patrick felt something large and puffy hit his face.

"Good morning, Sunshine!" Vance called out, as Patrick pushed off the pillow from his face. Patrick growled, while Vance just leaned on the doorway.

"Did I interrupt anything?" Vance asked.

"Not really" said the other pilot as he pulled himself out of bed.

"Hey, I know it's early," Vance said, "but I want to go over strategy with you. I don't intend to lose again tomorrow."

Patrick stood up and started to put on his clothes. "Okay. What've you got in mind?"

Vance just smiled.

Later that afternoon at NERV, at his request Misato gave Vance an informal guided tour of the underground facilities. She was happy to show him around. Actually he was the first of any of the Evangelion pilots she'd met that seemed to take a semi-decent interest in what NERV was actually doing.

"And as you can see here," she motioned to the EVA cages around them, "we have a pretty modern setup, with all of the lab facilities and engineering necessary to run operations with the EVA. Vance, how does this compare to the NERV-2 facility. Vance?"

"What???" Vance was busy looking around the cages for the EVAs, and saw his own black-colored unit here, standing next to Asuka's Unit 02. "Oh, sorry, just a bit distracted. It looks about the same really. The scenery's much better here though, with the GeoFront and all, plus you guys get Lake Ashi and Hakone. We just have desert...lots and lots and lots of desert."

"That's true," said Misato, "Though we don't get much time to enjoy it."

"Major, is it true that NERV keeps captured angels in the facility?" asked Vance.

"Whatever we're able to keep at any rate," she replied. "Each time we've destroyed an angel the body decomposes rapidly, so it's difficult to keep them for further study."

"What about the S2 engines?"

"You know about those? Well..." Misato scratched her head. "I think we were only able to keep one and that's being packed for shipment to NERV 3rd Branch in Germany. "

"When?"

"Sometime soon, I'm not quite sure." Actually she did know, but had enough common sense to not reveal such details to anyone not specifically authorized to get them. "Anyway, I'm not even sure I'm supposed to be talking to you about this!"

Vance smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry to be nosy. I just like to know more of what's going on around me with the program, so I always have a habit of asking really annoying questions like that. I didn't mean to intrude or anything!"

"Oh, no. We're just one big happy family here at NERV," she laughed nervously. "Sometimes I wish our own pilots would take a bigger interest in what goes on around here, instead of being so…"

"Self-absorbed?" he finished for her.

"I'm too polite to say it myself!" She smiled and held her hand at the back of her neck, clearly embarrassed. "You know what, though? You do bring up an interesting point. Why don't we all have an outing? I mean, we never get to see the sights and we're locals. Perhaps we can give you two a tour?"

"That sounds great," Vance replied. "I'm sure Patrick would go along, especially if the group included you-know-who."

"You mean?" Misato asked, knowingly.

"The First," Vance said, almost at a whisper.

Misato giggled a little. "Yes, I got the story from my roommates. He's certainly stuck on her, isn't he? Good luck!"

"Many have tried?" he asked.

Misato looked away from him and straight at Unit 00, which was now right in front of them. "Actually, I don't think ANY have tried."

As Misato and Vance turned a corner towards the pilot ready rooms, Kaji was watching them from the opposite end of the operations bay. He was using a pair of handheld binocameras, including a long-range microphone. Clearly, Kaji thought, the Americans here were not all that they seemed to be.

Kaji was also not the only one to take a keen interest in the new pilots. High above the operations bay in her laboratory, Dr. Akagi also watched Misato and Vance walk and talk as they were moving to the ready room.

"Maya?"

Lt. Ibiki eagerly turned around in her chair. "Yes, _sempai?_"

"Is there any feedback on the question I gave to the MAGI earlier about spoofing the EVA?"

Maya read off the display and then reported to her. "The MAGI are still analyzing the data have come up with 97 plausible scenarios so far and have estimated that a complete answer will be available within 20 hours. Was there any other data you wanted to add to the analysis?"

Ritsuko thought for a moment and then got up out of her own chair. "Yes, plug in the pilot feedback from the last combat test with the Americans."

"All of the pilots?" Maya asked.

"No, just EVA 03 and 04," Ritsuko replied as she started to walk out of the lab. "I have a hunch and I need to play it."

Maya turned back to her terminal. "Yes, Ma'am."

Kaji quietly waited in the operations bay thirty minutes until he saw Vance come back out of the pilot ready room, this time dressed in his plug suit. He watched Vinson walk over to his EVA's cage and speak with some of the American ground crew that had traveled with him and Patrick to NERV.

After seeing Vance climb up the maintenance scaffolding, Kaji then walked to the cage where the red Unit 02 was standing. Asuka was there too, dressed in her red plug suit standing on the scaffolding looking over different parts of her EVA. As Kaji walked over, Asuka noticed him and immediately bounded to the floor. "Hi, Kaji-san!!!"

"Hello, little Asuka!" Kaji spoke German to her.

She preened on him like a child. "Do you have time to take me out this week?"

"I would love to!" he said, as she wrapped both of her arms around his.

"YEAH!!1"

"But…"

"Awww! " Asuka cutely whined.

"Can you do me the slightest favor?" he asked.

"Of course!" she said eagerly, "IF I can get my date."

"I promise you that I will take you out next weekend_ if_ you can help me," the agent said. "Please find Mr. Vinson and take him today to the Spectro Arcade in Tokyo-3."

Asuka was incredulous. "What?!"

"I promised him earlier I'd show him a Japanese arcade," Kaji explained, "But unfortunately I don't have time right now. Given as you're the Queen of Video Games, I thought you'd take pleasure in taking him."

"Not unless I can kick his ass!" Asuka retorted.

Kaji had hit the target. "My sentiments exactly."

She brushed her hair through her hands and then put her hands on her hips. "Okay, then."

"He's just over there." Kaji pointed out to the adjacent EVA cage.

Asuka walked the five minutes it took to go from Cage 03 to Cage 05, where the black Unit 03 was kept. She saw Vance still on the scaffolding, carefully examining the optics on Unit 03's helmet. Asuka took an elevator to the top of the bay and leaned over the railing. She called to him in English in her best _frau-frau_ voice. "Whatcha' doin?"

He turned to look at her. "Oh! Hi, Asuka!"

"Trying to grease up your EVA for the next match?" she teased.

Vance got down from the scaffolding and jumped onto the top platform where she was standing. "You know, I don't need really help for this sort of thing."

"Of course," she said smugly. "I know how you _really_ feel."

"Oh, really?" Vance said with a smile.

Asuka turned and pranced around the platform. "You're embarrassed because a _GIRL_ beat you!"

"You didn't really beat me, you know."

"That's not what I remember," she turned to him and replied with a smirk. "I seem to remember something much different."

"You got lucky!" Vance exclaimed.

"Luck has nothing to do with it." she said coolly as she folded her arms. "I am the genius of Evangelion Combat! But that's not why I'm here. Actually, Kaji told me you like video games."

"Yeah, he promised me a trip to a local arcade."

"Well," she proclaimed, "It just so happens that I am a VIP at the best arcade in Tokyo-3."

_Well, this should be interesting, _he thought. "Are you also the genius of Super Mecha War Combat?"

"I am indeed," she said proudly. "Level 50 with Stars!!! Final Match finish time at record of 1 minute, 34 seconds."

"1 minute, 12 seconds," Vance coolly stated.

Asuka was genuinely shocked. "No way! That's impossible!"

"No it's not. I'll show you."

She stepped up and looked him right in the eye. "Loser buys dinner AND dessert!"

Vance said calmly "You're on."

_That same afternoon, at Misato's apartment..._

The doorbell rang and Shinji got out of his room to see who it was. He opened the door to find Patrick standing there in front.

"Hi, there!"

"Forrestal-kun!"

"Can I come in?" Patrick asked.

"Sure."

"So, you went to Ayanami's apartment?" Shinji offered Patrick a drink while they both sat in his room.

Patrick took the drink, which was a can of iced green tea. "Yes. I could not believe it. She actually lives like that."

"I know. I've seen it too."

"I always thought that the Japanese were more concerned about their appearance," Patrick commented.

"Yes, but she is just like that."

"She said she didn't have a family at all, like she was 'made' just for Project EVA and nothing else. That certainly seemed dedicated."

"I don't know if its dedication," replied Shinji, "or maybe she just doesn't have anywhere else to go."

"You mean that she's an orphan?"

"Well, she has no family that anyone knows about. All we know is that Dad and the others at NERV help take care of her."

"But you weren't living at home with your family, either?" Patrick asked, trying to put the pieces together.

Shinji paused for a moment. "No. My mom died when I was little."

"Hey, I'm really sorry for bringing that up, earlier."

"Oh, well, it's OK," Shinji shrugged.

"If it's anything to you, my mom's gone too."  
"Really?"

"Yeah. Some sort of airplane accident. Happened when I was little." Patrick looked away a bit. "Actually, I didn't really know her all that well anyway." Patrick felt numb as he said that. "What happened after your mom died?"

"I went to go live with my _Sensei_ after that," Shinji answered.

"Your _Sensei_? You mean you lived with your teacher?"

"Yes, well, he's my uncle actually. But he's a teacher for high school."

"What does he teach?"

"Music."

Patrick noticed the cello case against the wall and motioned to it. "You play?"

"Yes. Sensei was the one who taught me."

"Did he teach you anything else?"

"No."

Deep below the surface of Tokyo-3, Rei waited patiently for Dr. Akagi to arrive. She sat in a folding chair in the middle of a cavernous, dimly lit room. Around her there were several banks of computer terminals and scanning equipment. In the center of the room was a narrow glass chamber that reached all the way to the high ceiling, which was covered by all sorts of tubes and machinery. Known only to the core command staff at NERV, the Dummy Plug Plant, as it was called, was one of the best kept secrets in a place full of them.

Dr. Akagi entered the room and began to switch on several of the terminals, as Rei waited patiently in the chair.

"You can go in, now," the scientist said without facing her. Rei did as she was told, methodically taking off her school uniform and neatly folding it on the table beside her. She then took off her bra and panties and also laid them on the table. Fully naked, she stepped inside the glass chamber through a small opening.

Once she was inside, Dr. Akagi pressed a button and sealed the tube shut. The entryway sealed and a display in front of her lit green. Ritsuko pressed a second button that sent LCL flowing from the bottom of the tube.

Rei just stood there inside the tube, slowly floating upwards as the LCL filled the tube. It was not her first time inside and she had learned over the many sessions to let her mind drift during the hours she spent inside, as Dr. Akagi went about her work.

Within a couple of minutes the sensory tube had completely filled with LCL and she saw everything outside her through a reddish hue. Like inside the Evangelion plugs, the LCL used here was oxygenated for breathing yet felt lighter than water and allowed sound to carry well. The temperature of the liquid was a bit colder than she would have preferred, but Rei was content to spend time alone in the scanner processing and analyzing in her mind everything she had recently seen, heard or otherwise experienced. And since the time the Americans had come to Tokyo-3, there was a lot for her to process.

From inside the tube she saw Commander Ikari enter the room and speak with Dr. Akagi. The two of them were more familiar with each other here, away from the eyes of the others. Rei knew of the relationship they had, and thought very little of it. In any case, she was simply glad to have the Commander here with her in Terminal Dogma, as she did not feel she could fully trust Dr. Akagi and was not sure why.

Ritsuko carefully monitored the sensors that were recording every atom in Rei's being. It would take several more sessions with the scanner until this part of the project was completed.

"Do you think the Americans are up to no good?" she asked Gendo.

"They're just a distraction, nothing more," Gendo replied. He turned his attention to the girl in the tube.

"Rei, are you comfortable?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Very well. We won't be too long this time."

Ritsuko noticed the response speed of the main terminal was just a few seconds slower than normal. _That doesn't seem right. Then again, there's a lot more data too, this time._ She ran a quick check with the MAGI SYSOP display but there were no detected threats, and all other functions seemed normal.

_I'll have to check that out later, _she noted to herself, and went back to the work on analyzing the data from the scanners. As she worked, Commander Ikari just sat with his arms crossed in the folding chair and looked at Rei as she closed her eyes and let her mind sift through all of the many questions she had. But there was one question that was foremost on her mind:

_Why does the American boy keep trying to talk to me?_

Patrick heard a noise from the kitchen, and then saw a black and white shape cross the hallway and into the bathroom, burping loudly. _I hated penguins already, now she's got an alcoholic one…_

"Actually, Rei did suggest I should speak to you," Patrick said to Shinji.

"Really?"

"She said we had a lot in common."

Shinji was taken aback by Rei's comment. "I don't know about that. I mean, you're American and you seem much more, well, outspoken, than people here. Are all Americans like that?"

"Not all. We're just like anybody else, really." Then Patrick changed the subject. "Hey, Shinji, I saw your combat footage back at NERV-2. You really fight like a demon out there!"

"Well," Shinji replied reluctantly, "a lot of that's the EVA itself."

Patrick's eyes went wide. _So maybe it IS true about the EVA!_ "What do you mean?"

"Sometimes, the EVA, well, it just seems to take over." Shinji then looked away from Patrick. He was reluctant to say much further. Seeing the sad look on his face, Patrick had to wonder what Shinji might have gone through, and perhaps what all the pilots when through, in fighting the Angels. A silence hung over both boys until Shinji tried to change the subject again.

"Did you know about us before you came here?" Shinji asked.

"Just a little. We knew there were kids like us piloting these things. Vance had your names from some engineer guy he knew at NERV-2. Other than that and the video footage we saw before we came here, that's all we knew."

"Did you train to fight angels yet?"

"No," Patrick said. "This training match with you guys must be really important to NERV-2 because I've only been trained to fight other EVAs since I got to Nevada."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We saw some of the battles you guys had. The Angels seem seriously freaky!"

"Uh, yeah. Sometimes I wish we had something more normal to fight."

"I bet. Hey, who was piloting that yellow EVA? He sure was brave!" Patrick referred to the battle against the Fifth Angel, which the Japanese called Operation Yashima. Fought in the area between Tokyo-3 and the nearby mountains, one of the EVA had used its own body to shield Shinji's Unit 01 from the massive angel's energy beam, allowing Shinji to destroy the angel with a heavy positron rifle. The yellow EVA however had been nearly destroyed in the process.

"Oh, that was Unit 00."

"Holy crap! That was her? Was she okay after that?"

"She was in the hospital a few days, that's all."

"So that's what Hikari-chan was telling me. She said Rei was hurt badly a couple of months ago, missed a lot of school."

"Oh, she probably meant right before I came here," Shinji said. "Ayanami was in an accident with Unit 00 when it first activated. She almost died."

"Wow. She's been through a lot."

"Yeah," Shinji said quietly.

"Asuka's fights pretty cool, too." Patrick said. "We saw her battle against that fish thing." He meant the Sixth Angel, and the battle fought between it and EVA-02 in the Sea of Japan.

"Right. That was pretty scary to go through."

"Was Unit 01 there, too?"

"No. I was in the plug with Asuka."

Patrick was quite surprised at that. "What? That's, like, impossible!"

"No, it's not. I've had Suzahara and Aida in there too, and I was still able to pilot."

"Those two? When?"

"Fourth Angel."

"Are they also pilots?" Patrick asked.

"Uh, no, although Kensuke's been bugging Misato about becoming one since he met me."

Patrick laughed at that. "He can have the job! Personally, I think this whole EVA thing sucks!"

Shinji laughed a little too. "I think that I agree with you."

"You don't like piloting?"

"Well...No. I do it because...well…"

Patrick said it plainly. "Your dad's the commander, isn't he?"

Shinji looked sheepishly at the other boy. _Does he actually understand? Maybe?_ "Yeah."

"Now I think I know what Rei might have meant," Patrick said, mostly to himself.

"What did you do before EVA, Forrestal?" Shinji asked him.

"Please call me Patrick."

"Okay...what did you do before EVA, Patrick?"

"I lived in a small town in California, up in the mountains. It's a place called Big Bear."

"Big Bear? Where there really bears there?"

"I never saw one. Anyway, it was a small town and I just lived in a cabin with my uncle. Nothing really exciting to report."

"What about your dad?"

"My dad lived in Nevada at the base. I'd see him maybe once every year. My uncle was good, although he was really strict. We lived out in a cabin on the mountain, just outside of town, spent lots of time in the outdoors. "

"Where did you go to school?"  
"I didn't go to a school," Patrick replied.

Shinji was surprised. "No?"

"No. I was entirely home schooled."

"You can do that in America?"

"Preferable, in my opinion," Patrick said. "It's sort of ironic, but Tokyo-3 is the first real school I've been to."

"So how did you get into EVA?" Shinji asked.

"The whole thing started about six months ago," said Patrick. "I started to get these very strange dreams."

"About what?"

"I saw, or rather, _I was_, a girl in an entry plug, though I didn't know what an entry plug was then."

"You dreamt you were a girl?" Shinji exclaimed.

"Yeah. For a little while there I thought I was becoming gay." Patrick laughed nervously. "Anyway about three months later, the dreams got…well, scary, like she was freaking out when she got inside the plug."

Shinji sat up in his bed. Finally, he had run into someone who might have had some of the same experiences he did with the EVA. "And then?"

Patrick sighed. _Wow, has it been that long?_ "And then in one evening my whole life changed."


	7. Chapter 6: Flashback

CHAPTER SIX

_Three months earlier…_

On Big Bear Mountain, in the California Sierra Nevada Mountains, it was late evening in the large, wooden cabin where Patrick and his uncle lived. Patrick was in the living room, working on a large jigsaw puzzle, one with the famous 19th century image of Mt. Fuji and the Tsunami, while his uncle, a burly man in his fifties with salt and pepper hair and a bushy mustache, sat in an easy chair close by, quietly listening to a Russian opera playing from the stereo. There was a knock on the door.

Uncle opened his eyes, disturbed at the interruption. "Who's going to come up here at THIS time of night?" he said.

"It's probably Old Man Johnson," replied Patrick. "Here to tell his story about the UN Anti-Christ again." He stood up and walked to the door. "Here, I'll get it."

Patrick opened the door, and from the darkness he saw a teenage girl with short blond hair and green eyes. She was dressed in a hospital gown, soiled with dirt and water, and she had an absolutely terrified look on her pale face.

Patrick gasped. _It's her! _

She immediately grabbed Patrick's sweater and brought her face close to his, shouting "WHAT'S ALIVE IS DEAD! WHAT'S DEAD IS ALIVE!" Patrick tried to break away but she continued to shout and cling to him. Uncle quickly rose up from his chair and grabbed a small black object from inside one of the cabinets.

Patrick looked into the blonde girl's eyes and could see them quiver in horror. "What's alive is dead! What's dead is alive!" she kept screaming.

Patrick tried to get hold of her and pull her into the cabin and out of the cold outside. "Who are you?" he asked her, but she continued to cling tightly at his clothing. Patrick looked behind her and saw Uncle who before she could react, applied the small black object to her shoulder and activated it. The tazer made a loud crackling sound and the young girl shivered in shock for a moment, and then fell to the floor.

Patrick managed to catch her in his arms as she fell and laid her gently on a rug. All he could say was "Oh, my God!"

Uncle looked at Patrick. "Is this the girl from the dreams?" he asked. Patrick nodded, still in shock himself. "Who do you think she is?" he asked Uncle.

Uncle walked over to one of the bedrooms and came back out holding a mirror and a blanket. "I always wondered if something like this might happen," he said. "Here," Uncle handed the mirror to Patrick. "Take a good look."

"At who?"

"You, of course." Patrick did so and just saw his reflection in the mirror.

"Now look at her face," Uncle told him, as he gently placed the blanket over the unconscious body of the girl. Patrick did, and then looked back in the mirror. Her eyes were green, the same color as his, and her hair was also blonde. _Something really familiar about her _Patrick thought. It took him a good moment, and he suddenly realized what uncle was trying to show him. _……No…No way!_

"She looks like me….." the full emotional impact of the girl's presence was finally felt by Patrick and he turned to his uncle. "Who is she?" he asked him again.

Uncle paused for a bit, sizing up everything. He crossed his arms and looked straight at his nephew. "Her name's Erin…..Erin Forrestal."

"Sister?" Patrick asked.

"Twin." Uncle quietly replied.

Completely in shock, Patrick sat down in a chair. "You knew?" he said to his uncle softly.

"Yes. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you earlier." Uncle said. "It was conditional to you being here."

"What do you mean?" Patrick asked, more hurt than angry.

Uncle walked to Patrick's bedroom closet and pulled out a large backpack. "Your whole life's about to change. Quickly, get your stuff packed. They'll be here any minute."

Patrick didn't get up. "Uncle, what's going on? Where did she come from?"

"She's been in the desert with your father. If she's here, something must have gone very wrong." Uncle didn't wait for Patrick to get up, but just started to put clothes and things into the backpack. Patrick finally got up at that.

"Gone wrong with what? " Patrick was now angry. He walked over and stood right in front of his uncle, as he had finished stuffing his backpack. "What the hell is this?"

Uncle put down the backpack and then gently pushed Patrick to sit down on his bed. "Son, listen to me now. We don't have much time. I've always taught you to question things, push your way to the answer, correct?"

"Yeah?"  
"This time, this one time," he held a finger in the air, "I need you to trust me. There's a lot at stake here."

"Uncle, you are really freaking me out!"  
"I know. This can't be easy as you don't know anything right now. You'll find out everything you need to know soon enough."

'But…"

"Just remember everything I taught you. Do you understand?" Uncle looked directly into Patrick's angry eyes until he could get a response. Patrick paused for a bit, looking away, then returned his glance back to his uncle, submitting one last time to his uncle's will.

"Okay."

"Good lad," he affirmed. "Now, how's your Japanese?" Uncle spoke to him in the other language.

"Um, I'm good with it," Patrick replied back, also in Japanese. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"You'll probably make some use of it later." Patrick winced at Uncle's comment. _What did he mean by that?_

The sound of helicopters whirled overhead, and was rapidly getting louder.

"Now, I've got your stuff here. You'll be alright, just do as you're told and keep your head on straight."  
Patrick tried again. "What's all this about?"  
"No more questions, Okay? It would all take just too much time to explain."  
"Is this got anything to do with father's work?"  
"Yes. You'll be his responsibility from now on." Uncle paused and sighed. "Patrick, I promised your mother you'd be all right, that she could count on you. Please don't disappoint me."

"What's this got to do with my mom?" Patrick asked.  
"Everything," his uncle sharply replied. The helicopter noises were now getting very close, and it felt like one had landed nearby. "I guess that's it, then" Uncle said, mostly to himself, and then he looked at Patrick and smiled. "Patrick?"  
"Yes?" Patrick was nearly at tears now, as it seemed the whole world was collapsing in on him.

"Your mom always said to me 'as long as there's breath in your body, there's hope.' Just remember that, will you?"

"OK" said Patrick sheepishly. With that, Uncle left the cabin and walked outside to meet the men coming out of the helicopter. Patrick just stood inside the cabin and looked at the unconscious body of the girl, his sister, his _twin_ sister, lying on the rug.

Patrick kneeled down to the floor and gently, cautiously moved to touch her. He carefully touched her blonde hair, and then gently moved his hand across her cheek. She was still unconscious from the taker strike, but he could hear her softly breathing, her head quivering slightly. Her face seemed peaceful now, in contrast to when she had first arrived.

_This is me, the me I might have been_, Patrick thought to himself. _But how did she know to come here?_

He reached down for her hand, but then as he did so, three men in flight helmets and olive-colored light suits entered the cabin. Their visors were drawn down over their faces. Patrick stood up off the floor but before he could say anything, one of the men gave him a mobile phone, while the other two quickly picked the girl off the floor and put her into a stretcher. They carefully tied her down to the mobile stretcher, being sure to firmly secure her head, hands, and legs, and then carried her out of the cabin. Patrick just stared at them as they did this as he heard a voice on the mobile phone.

"Patrick?"  
"Dad!" Patrick said "What's going on?"  
"You need to go with these men now. You need to do everything they tell you to do. Do you understand?"  
"But..." His dad, while distant with him, was never this strict before.  
"No argument. Just do this now. It's very important you go with them."

"Where are they taking me?" Patrick asked.  
"To the desert. There's a place there. You'll learn more when you get there. Now please go."

"Dad, who was that girl?" Patrick tried to get more information, but the phone clicked off. The Caller ID display on the phone said UNKNOWN NUMBER.

The first of the flight crew promptly took his phone out of Patrick's hands. He was already holding Patrick's luggage with him. "We need to go now," the man said to him.

Patrick walked out of the cabin with the crewman and towards one of two waiting helicopters. Erin, strapped tightly on the stretcher, was being brought to a separate helicopter. He noticed that much of the area around the cabin was still dark, with only the cabin window providing light. The two helicopters were dark in color and did not even have their running lights on.

As he moved towards the helicopter, Patrick turned around and saw Uncle speaking with one of the aircrew. He was having a spirited conversation with what looked like the leader of the group, when uncle turned his head and saw Patrick. Patrick tried to call out to him, but the rotor noise was too loud for him to hear. Patrick waved with his hand to his Uncle, as Uncle simply nodded and then went back to speaking with the leader. One of the crewmen pulled him by the arm into the helicopter's passenger cabin and quickly slid the door shut. Patrick barely had time to sit down before the chopper rapidly lifted into the air.

Patrick looked out the window and saw the cabin, his home for as long as he could remember. The other men were still talking with Uncle on the ground, as the helicopter turned around and moved away. Now shivering a bit, Patrick sat back in the seat and tried to think about what had just happened. It was all so fast, not even fifteen minutes ago he was finishing his jigsaw puzzle, now he was being whisked away to parts unknown. _What will happen now?_ He thought about the girl that had started all of this. So many pieces to put together in his mind. His body started to shake in the coldness of the cabin, and he slouched in the seat, and saw the mountains fall away quickly out the cabin window.

Patrick continued telling his story to Shinji. "The next thing I knew was, I'm in Nevada, and I'm now the one in the entry plug."

"How about Vance?" Shinji asked. "When did you meet him?"

* * *

* * *

"Not long after I got to NERV-2. The first time I met him, I almost made him an enemy."

* * *

* * *

* * *

Patrick was sitting in the pilot locker room, as another boy, tall with dark hair and dark eyes, walked over to him. He was wearing a black and red plug suit. Patrick had been slowly putting his own orange and black plug suit on.

"Hey, new kid! How's it going? I'm Vance! Vance Vinson. " He offered his hand to the newly selected pilot.

"Screw off!" Patrick replied with a very angry tone. Before Vance could say anything, Patrick quickly finished putting on his suit, stood up and left the room.

"Geez! So Hostile!" Vance said, sure that Patrick heard him. He smiled to himself as he watched the new pilot leave.

_He'll be back._

"Did they tell you anything about your sister?" Shinji asked.

"No, and that was the most frustrating part. My dad didn't tell me anything else, and neither did anyone else at NERV-2. They all acted like she never existed. It wasn't until later when I found out about who she was."

"How did you find out?"  
"There were some clues. Like the tape over my nameplate on my locker to cover up 'E. FORRESTAL,' instead of 'P. FORRESTAL.' Also, early on they accidentally gave me a girl's plug suit instead of my own, which was quickly replaced before I could say anything. About the second week that I was there one of the nurses gave me a check up and whispered to me that I looked just like 'her.' I asked her who she meant. Actually, I kind of did more than just ask – I was pretty angry at the time."

"What did you do when you found out?"

Patrick waited in front of his father's office in NERV-2's 1st Division wing, where the Science and Technical branch was located. His father walked out of the office talking on his mobile phone.

"Oh…wait a bit, I'll call you back." Dr. Forrestal turned to Patrick and smiled broadly. "Patrick, what a pleasant surprise? I hope things are going well for you over in Operations."

Patrick was livid. "WHY THE _HELL_ DIDN'T YOU TELL ME I HAD A _TWIN_???"

Dr. Forrestal's expression immediately changed to serious, and he sighed. "I thought this might happen eventually. Who told you? Was it the other boy?" Dr. Forrestal entered his office and Patrick followed him inside, fists clenched.

"Someone. Why didn't you tell me?"

"You must trust us. We had our reasons."

"You mean Mom was part of this?"

"Yes. It was her decision, actually."

Patrick scowled. "This is so much bullshit!"

"I see I left you with your uncle too long," said the elder Forrestal. "You must understand the scale of things that we're doing here. It's not just about _you_. We are dealing with life and death for the whole planet."

"What does that have to do with keeping me in the dark about my own family?"

"I don't expect you to understand, and I'm under no obligation to explain the reasons to you in any case. "

"Why should I believe anything you say?"

"Look, boy," Harrison Forrestal pointed a finger at his son as he spoke sharply. "While you were up in your Winter Wonderland, the rest of us were hard at work preparing to defend this planet from forces that are completely beyond your comprehension. Now it's your turn to pay back. Got it?"

Patrick changed the subject. "So, does that mean I'm going to get freaked out like her by the time you're done with me?"

Dr. Forrestal stepped right up to Patrick's face "You have no idea what you're even talking about!"

"I saw her in the plug two months ago! I saw what happened!"

"You did, then?"

"Yes."

Dr. Forrestal mulled for a bit. "Unfortunate, that is." Then he turned to Patrick. "If I were you, I would just consider her dead and get on with things. We don't have time to waste on such matters here."

Patrick folded his arms. He had run out of patience. "You know what? I'm outta this clown house! Get me the hell out of here."

Dr. Forrestal smiled again. "Suit yourself. Call you uncle, and have him pick you up. You can use the phone in my office." He motioned to the open door.

Patrick stepped in quickly and grabbed the phone. "Um…how do I dial…?"

"Press the orange button first: that gets you on the secured outside line. Then dial the number."

"Fine." Patrick did punch the orange button and then called his house number. There was an automatic message saying the line had been disconnected. He redialed the number, and received the same message again. Then he called his uncle's mobile phone and heard a similar message. He kept dialing several times, but always the same result. _No way_, he thought, _they wouldn't disconnect so fast, there's not even a voice mail message. What the hell?_

"It seems he's abandoned you!" Dr. Forrestal said over his shoulder.

"No way! He would never…."

"Actually, things got so busy here I forgot to tell you. The UN security forces called him up on active duty the day after we took you here. He's currently on assignment…and unreachable."

"You bastard!"  
"So…" Dr. Forrestal smiled. "It seems like your stuck here!"

Patrick looked around the desk for something sharp.

"I don't keep scissors here for security purposes. If you're considering something rash, I would suggest not doing so – there are two security guards outside the opposite door to this room and, while they wouldn't kill you, they would certainly cause you a great deal of unnecessary pain. See?" He waived his hand in the air and out of the back door to his office two uniformed guards rushed in. Patrick just glared at his father.

Dr. Forrestal addressed the guards. "Please take the pilot of Unit 04 back to the operations wing, they're no doubt searching for him there. " With that, Dr. Forrestal turned his back and moved to the front office door. He stopped for a moment "Patrick?"

"What?" he angrily answered.

"Don't come here again." He then left the room.

The two security guards reached to grab his arms but Patrick shrugged them off. He started walking back the way he came in as the two guards followed him closely from behind.

"After the encounter with my father," Patrick continued, "Vance tried again."

Inside the NERV-2 EVA operations bay, Patrick was leaning on the railing, looking at the two Evangelion units, one black, one silver, standing next to each other, as technicians crawled over each of them. Vance Vinson, dressed in a printed t-shirt and camouflage pants, walked over to Patrick as he was sulking,

"Hey, there," Vance said, as Patrick just scowled at him.

Vance ignored the facial insult and leaned on the railing next to Patrick. "You know somewhere we got off on the wrong foot."

"I really don't want to talk to anyone right now!" Patrick shot back, not looking at him.

"I could understand that, given what you've been through."

Patrick stood up and started to move away from him. "You have no idea what I've been through!"  
"You know," Vance called to Patrick as he started to walk down the gangway. "Instead of arguing, why don't we call a truce and let me show you something." Patrick turned his head, as Vance continued. "Give me one hour. If after that you're still not convinced, you can go back to hating me and everyone else, no problem. Deal?"

"Whatever!"  
"Good enough," replied Vance. "Come on, follow me." Vance walked down the gangway as Patrick reluctantly followed him.

Vance took Patrick to the pilot ready room. Filled with several easy chairs, there was also a very large video screen on one wall. Patrick automatically sat down in one of the quite comfortable chairs, as Vance activated the video player and dimmed the lights.

"Here, let me show you something." Vance said. The video he played for the next few minutes showed various footage of both EVA 03 and 04, undergoing a series of combat maneuvers at night. Both EVAs were attacking large targets, and sometimes each other. There were several scenes of the black Unit 03 using what seemed like martial arts to take down a set of very large targets mounted on steel platforms. Then there were a few scenes where the EVAs went through an obstacle course, only giant-size. As he watched the video, Patrick couldn't help but notice the swiftness and intensity of the giants.

"Wow, that's...."

"...Cool?" Vance finished for him. "You have to admit, it looks pretty awesome, running in one of these things, doesn't it?" Patrick just shrugged his shoulders.

Vance sat down in the chair next to Patrick and faced him. "You know, there are a million guys our age that would gladly give up their right nut to be in your position right now, and you're treating it like a funeral! You've got the chance of a lifetime right here in the palm of your hand!"

"Oh, so I can end up like she did?" Patrick angrily replied as he pointed at an image of EVA-04 on the video screen. "Why doesn't anyone want to talk about her? What the hell happened?"

Vance sighed. "Well, no one says anything because it's a sore subject for a lot of people here. She was pretty popular, a bit like a mascot. When she...freaked out, a lot of us were pretty shook up about it."

"And now it's my turn?" Patrick turned away, not yet convinced. Vance used a remote control to start the video again. Then he tried once more with Patrick.

"Look, Forrestal? Here's the situation. Now, you saw the video. I'm good, I have to admit it, but this is a big job, okay, and I cannot do this on my own. Right now, you are literally the only human being that can pilot that thing."

Patrick rolled his eyes at that. "I find that hard to believe!"

"Why do you thing they went to such lengths to keep you under wraps?" Vance countered. "Yes, everyone lied to you. Yes, it's totally unfair. Yes, it's scary what happened to Erin, and everyone's keeping their distance from you because they don't want to get too attached to the new kid. But right now you are the only one that can do this, and I need you on board."

Patrick just sat there silently in the chair.

Vance was starting to get a bit frustrated, and almost a bit desperate. "Hey, I'm not your dad, OK? I'm not going to threaten you, or say you're a loser if you don't get in the plug, but I need you to at least try. I promise you, I promise you, you will not regret it. Not at all."

Patrick thought through everything he had just heard and saw, as Vance sat silently next to him. To Patrick, at that moment, Vance seemed a lot older than just fourteen. "Did you have a choice to do this?" he asked him.

"No," Vance replied. "I'm here because I need to be, same as everyone else. I'd rather be home with my boat and chasing girls. However, being as I am here, and, being that it could actually be the end of the world and all, I make the best of it."

Patrick couldn't doubt the sincerity of the other pilot at that. _It seems like there's no other choice anyway._ "I'll give it a go, then."

"Good attitude. Welcome to EVA." Vance offered his hand again, and this time Patrick took it,

"Where do we start?"

"Did you sync yet?" Vance asked.

"Yeah."

"What was that like?"

Patrick was honest. "Weird."

Vance smiled. "Good. So, let's take it from there."

At the Spectro Arcade, Asuka and Vance spent the next several hours engaged in mortal virtual combat. On Super Mecha War Combat, they selected head-to-head mode, and both pilots played opposite each other, facing a large holographic display while miniature mobile-suits dodged and fired at each other and all other manner of hostile targets across the digital landscape. Asuka was very concentrated on her game, while Vance kept one eye on her.

"You're looking at me," she said to Vance without looking up.

"Oh?" he replied as he played on. "I didn't notice."

"Don't think I'm so easy to hit on," she said, waiting for an opening.

"Trust me," he replied again. "I never had that impression."

"So, don't you think I'm cute?" She quickly glanced at him.

"Actually," Vance said, "You remind me of someone I knew once."

"Really?" Asuka rapidly jammed on the controls and Vince did the same a half-second later. "Bah! I almost got you!"

They both focused on the game again. Vance started on her this time. "Hey, what do you see in the Third, anyway?"

Asuka was a little surprised. "Who, Shinji?"

"Yeah. You're together, right?" Vance quickly made a series of maneuvers as he said this.

"Ohh..." she saw the trap and responded quickly. "You did that on purpose to make me mess up!" Vance laughed as they both went into overdrive button-mashing. "Not so fast!" she retorted, as her on-screen mecha got an advantage on Vance's.

"Wow! You really are the Queen!" he said.

"Nobody beats me and lives to tell about it," she replied. They both played intently for a moment, each moving and firing and dodging to avoid being killed by the other. Asuka continued "We're not together or anything, but being as we train together, I suppose we stick together more often. Does it show that much?"

"Well, I was thinking you're roommates after all, and one would naturally assume that ..." Vance again went into attack mode, but this time Asuka was ready for him.

"Oh, no! You're not doing_ that_ again. You're going down!" She quickly jerked the controls and mashed several buttons repeatedly until the holographic screen vividly exploded.

"Ouch!" he said, almost meaning it. "Oh, crap, you beat me!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Her grin was a mile wide.

Vance sighed. _Oh well, mission accomplished_. On the opposite side of the video game Asuka did a little victory dance, her short skirt swishing as she swung her hips in rhythm with the game's victory music. "Ca-Ke! Ca-Ke! Ca-Ke!" she chanted as she started to dance around Vance, and then starting singing in a booming voice, "Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles..."

_She's insufferable when she wins._

Both Shinji and Patrick talked for a bit longer as it got darker outside, as each traded their many stories about their experiences. Shinji asked several questions about Patrick's training and life in America, while Patrick managed to drag out of Shinji more about their battles with the Angels, and, more about the First Child. Finally, Patrick got to the reason why he came over in the first place.

"Hey, Shinji?" Patrick asked as he looked at the nearly full moon outside,

"Yes?"

"You seem to know Rei better than anyone here, from what I can see." Patrick crawled over to the bed where Shinji was lying down. "Do you think she would go out with me?"

Shinji looked very surprised. "Who, Ayanami?"

"Yes," Patrick said quite seriously.

"I really don't think so," Shinji answered. "I don't think she would do it."

"Still," pondered Patrick. "I wouldn't mind at least one date."

Shinji turned to him. "Patrick, I'm not even sure she would even know what she was supposed to do."

"Supposed to do?" Patrick stood up. "What, doesn't every girl just want to be taken out and dined, and bought things, and have these romantic…moments? If she's human, she would still want this, even if she didn't really think about it. On some level she's still a G-I-R-L."

"I don't know…" Shinji said cautiously.

Patrick sat down on the floor again. "Anyway, help me out, will you?"

"With what?" Shinji asked.

The American pilot looked directly at him. "Help me to get a date with The First Child!"

Shinji was absolutely stunned at the request. "Um.....well...."

That evening, with both American pilots pre-occupied, Kaji went to the NERV officer quarters, where the American pilots were given their room. He started to work on the lock and noticed two things: one was that the standard room lock had been altered to accept a different key card than was originally set for the room. The other was that the lock now had a counter installed that simply counted how many times the door had been opened. Being somewhat experienced in such matters, Kaji was able to quickly defeat the lock and reset the counter to ignore the last opening.

Looking around, Kaji saw a wide collection of luggage, magazines, dirty clothes, and local souvenirs. A holographic jigsaw puzzle was spilled over one table, half-way completed. He went through the bags quietly and after a few minutes found in one of the bags several syringes and bottles. Taking an empty syringe that he had brought with him he carefully extracted some of the orange chemical in the bottles.

_What ARE you two hiding?_


	8. Chapter 7: Game On!

CHAPTER SEVEN

FRIDAY

During lunch break at school, Patrick went searching for Rei, who had quietly slipped out of class just as the session ended. After a few minutes of looking around, he had found her, sitting on the ground against a concrete set of stairs. As he had expected, she was again reading. Without saying anything, he quietly sat on the ground beside her. She quickly glanced at him as he sat down, and then went back to reading.

"Hi, there," he said, trying to be casual. "Nice weather, huh?" There was no response from her.

"What are you reading? Let me see" He poked around to see the book she had. "Quantum Analysis of Phase-Shift Matter in Carbon-Based Organisms: a Theory. Holy smokes! Do you actually understand this?" She turned to look at him, and quietly nodded.

"Would you explain it to me?" he asked.

To provide a proper explanation would require a common frame of reference," she replied coldly. "I do not think we have such a thing as this."

_Meaning we don't have it in common_, he thought. _That's a good point, what do we have in common? _"Rei?" he asked her.

She turned her head to him, the book still in her hands, as Patrick spoke to her. "I was thinking about what you told me earlier, about the EVA speaking to me. I wanted to know: what does your EVA tell you?"

Rei paused for a moment to think about the question, looking into the distance ahead of her. "She is frightened," she finally said.

"Frightened? An Evangelion? I find that very hard to believe!"

"It is true," she continued. "She is frightened of what she sees and experiences. She also has a feeling of deep isolation: she does not know where she belongs."

_That's like the third or fourth time Rei's used the female gender for the EVA._ "What is it that you tell it...I mean her?"

"I try to comfort her, and give her direction," she said. "It was very difficult at first, but after some time she has come to trust me. And I trust her."

"You think of her as a child?" he asked.

"She is a child." she flatly replied.

"So, is my EVA a child, too?"

She looked directly at him. "No."

"Oh, look at the cute couple!" Patrick and Rei both looked up to see Asuka standing there, hands on her hips and leering at both of them.

"Asuka!" Patrick said, upset at the interruption.

The redhead directed her glare at Rei. "Wow, Wondergirl is the envy of her class, catching herself a foreigner boyfriend," she said snidely. "You better be careful, or else you'll end up like Madam Butterfly."

"It's not like that!" Patrick defended.

"Sure, sure," Asuka teased. ."Well, anyway, enjoy it while it lasts!"

"I must go now," Rei said as she suddenly closed her book and stood up.

"Rei!" Patrick called to her, but she quickly walked away and back inside the school building. He thought to run after her, but he couldn't think of what he would say to her when he reached her.

"Aren't you going to go after her?" Asuka mockingly urged.

Patrick was pissed at her attitude. "Are you always such a bitch?" Asuka just folded her arms and said "humpf."

"Did she ever do anything to you?" he said.

"I'm just saving you the trouble. You can thank me later." Asuka walked away, leaving Patrick just sitting there.

Later that afternoon, the second training match began, this time with live Evangelions. Five Evangelion units, more power than NERV had ever seen before, lumbered over to an above-ground training area. The training area was set up like an urban environment, spanning several kilometers, with a structure that closely resembled Tokyo-3's fortress city.

Monitoring the training action again was the NERV command crew, still operating out of Central Dogma. The three controller officers all observed their respective panels as the combat simulation environment was set up. What took weeks of planning and coordination between operations on two continents was now going to all go down in the next five minutes.

"Training Zone One reports all areas clear and ready to go," said Lt. Ibiki.

"EVAs 00 through 04 are moving to position," reported Lt. Hyuga.

Lt Aoba turned to Major Katsuragi, who was again controlling the exercise. "SimTokyo-3 System is available for activation on your command."

Higher up in the Commander's office, Gendo Ikari and Dr. Futsuyuki monitored the goings on.

"Amazing," remarked Dr. Futsuyuki. "Five Evangelion Units together. The Earth has never seen such power all at one place."

Gendo Ikari was unemotional. "Not under mankind's control at any rate."

"Do you think the Americans will perform as well as last time?" Futsuyuki asked.

"In a way I'm hoping so," Gendo said. "It seems that Angels might be less dangerous to us than other Evangelions are. This should be a lesson to all of us."

Dr. Akagi took a careful look at the status reports of all five Evangelion units. The forward screens had a complete data report for each unit, along with a live video of the pilot and another data report for pilot condition. After some double-checking she was satisfied with the conditions of all. "All Eva units are cleared for combat," she reported.

"Right!" replied Misato, who again wore a red officer's uniform today. She turned to the live videos of the children. "Pilots, listen up. This is your first live EVA exercise. We've set up a replica of Tokyo-3 for you fighting pleasure. The game today is Capture the Flag: Each side has a flag that it hides in their own territory. The other side has to both defend their own flag and capture the enemy's flag. You will be using simulated rounds with this match only: no live weapons. This round is for 5 minutes only. Understood?"

All pilots replied "Roger!" in unison.

Misato turned to Unit 02's pilot. "Asuka, don't blow it like last time!"

"What do you mean??" Asuka protested. "I kicked his ass!"

Misato was nonplussed. "Blow your cool again and he'll just find a weak point and bring you down."

"She's right, you know," chimed in Shinji.

"Shut up, Shinji!" Asuka shot back.

Vance was a bit miffed at the coaching. "No playing favorites, Major!"

"Life's rough, Mr. Vinson," Misato cutely replied.

"It's bad enough that it's 3 on 2," Patrick said to Vance. "Now the umpires are playing home field advantage."

"Then let's play ball," Vance said smugly. "American style!"

"Batter up!" Patrick called out.

Each squad of EVAs moved to their respective side of the fighting area. As the three Japanese units got into their designated zone, Asuka, who appointed herself team captain, went over her carefully-thought out strategy.

"This is the plan. Miss Perfect is on defense." Asuka referred to Rei. They were all speaking on a private communications channel.

"Ayanami?" confirmed Shinji.

"Of course," Asuka continued. "They'll probably send Vinson after me, which leaves Forrestal. Because Forrestal likes the First he'll go easy on her, leaving him an easy target for you, stupid!"

"What if Vance is on defense?" Shinji asked.

"Then both of us will double-team EVA-04 and knock him out quickly, and then we'll go for the flag. Right?"

"Right." Shinji then spoke to Rei. "Ayanami?"

"Yes?"

"Just protect us, will you?" he asked.

"Yes."

Unit 00 moved closer to the "flag," which was actually a large 50-meter flagpole with a red flag mounted on it. The Americans' flag, just barely visible to the others, was Blue. There was already no sign of the two American Evangelions -they had quickly moved into their area and into position.

A loud horn sounded and a large LCD clock mounted tower in the middle of the simulation area began to count down from five minutes. At the moment the clock started, each EVA jettisoned their umbilical cables, working strictly on battery power, to allow for a full range of movement within the combat maze.

Asuka and Shinji then took up hidden positions at the front edge of their territory. Asuka silently watched the silver-white EVA-04 slowly maneuver into their defense area. EVA-03 was still nowhere to be seen.

"I see you," Asuka observed. "Shinji, EVA-04 is on offense."

As Unit 04 moved closer first Asuka and then Shinji trained their gun sights on it. Just as it got into firing range, however, Unit 04 quickly dodged into an adjacent street corner and out of sight as the two Japanese EVAs fired at it. As their paint bullets missed EVA-04, they flew into the nearby buildings which then blew up dramatically into an explosion of whooshing air and multi-color paint.

"Inflatable buildings!" exclaimed Shinji.

"Duh!" Asuka chided. "You didn't think we'd fight over the REAL Tokyo-3, did you?"

Asuka checked the game timer and quickly thought over her game plan. Then she decided to move things up a bit.

"I'm moving to take their flag," she said to Shinji. "Go after EVA-04."

"Uh, Asuka, don't you want me to cover you?" he asked.

She was unconcerned. "_Baka Shinji!_ Don't worry! I spent all yesterday afternoon seeing how Vinson fights. Believe me, I got it covered."

"Okay," Shinji reluctantly agreed.

EVA-04 moved into another street way and took cover again. From a distance he could see the Red flag, and EVA-00 in a firing position nearby, scanning the horizon. Patrick trained his gun sight on her.

"There you are," he said to an unknowing Rei. "Can you see me from there? No? Oh, well, such a pity."

EVA-04 put its finger on the trigger of its pallet gun. Just before he could pull it, the purple image of EVA-01 loomed large on his scope. "Got you!" Shinji called out.

Patrick was not expecting this. "Ikari? What a surprise!"

Shinji screamed as he fired wildly on EVA-04 with his own pallet gun. EVA-04 was able to dodge the barrage while several inflatable buildings behind him all when up in smoke. "Shinji, you're firing too wildly. Get it under control!" ordered Misato.

Asuka moved carefully and deliberately through the American zone, scanning for Unit 03, which was still no where in sight.

"Where the hell is he?" She saw the blue flag standing there, 200 meters away and right in front of her, planted in the middle of a street intersection. "Hey, the flag's unguarded. Such an easy mistake! I'm so embarrassed to admit I'm American sometimes."

EVA-02 walked over to the blue flag and reached over to grab it. Just as she did however, Asuka saw something very much unexpected: a Prog Knife was cutting its way out of one of the nearby buildings. Out of the opening it cut jumped out the jet black EVA-03.

"Peek a Boo!" Vance called out.

"Hey, no fair! Those buildings are supposed to be real! You can't just hide in one!" Asuka protested. "Major, he's cheating!"

"Not from my standpoint!" Misato replied.

"Fine. It's not going to matter!" Asuka growled.

"Here's your cake back!" teased Vance.

"You're just upset that I beat you again."

"I just gave you a show that time." Vance replied. "Now you see the real me!" EVA-03 then fiercely attacked EVA-02 and both started to go at it in violent melee combat.

"Both of you be careful!" called out Dr. Akagi as she saw the close combat on the Central Dogma main screen. "We don't want to damage the EVAs!"

"Screw that!" yelled Asuka, as she continued to fight with Unit 03.

In the Japanese zone, Shinji scanned the horizon but didn't see where Unit 04 had disappeared to.

"Where is he?" he said to himself. "Don't let him get to the flag, don't let him get to the flag."

As EVA01 walked down the street, suddenly a set of buildings burst open in front of him. Behind them was EVA04, guns blazing.

"He shot the buildings out!" Shinji exclaimed. "I thought that was out of bounds!"

"All's Fair in Love and War," said Patrick.

EVA-01 and 04 fought a raging gun battle behind several buildings and corners. From a distance perched next to the Red flag, Rei, in Unit 00, took careful aim. A single shot rang out.

"EVA-04 knocked out," called out Hyuga. "Direct hit!"

"Head shot!" observed Aoba.

"Good shooting, Rei!!!" cheered Misato.

Inside EVA-04's plug damage report lights and sounds were all over. "What the heck?" he changed his viewer aspect and saw EVA-00 and her rifle over the distance. "So this is how it ends, huh? Not a bad way to go…at least I bagged the other guy!"

"Thank you, Ayanami!" called out Shinji, who then noticed that his own warning lights were also going off. "Oh, no..." he said mournfully.

"EVA-01 is also knocked out," Maya announced.

Rei said nothing, but just stared at the two immobile, paint-covered Evangelion units.

With less than two minutes go to in the simulation EVAs 02 and 03 fought intensely in melee combat, bouncing each other off the surrounding buildings. As the staff in Central Dogma watched, it seemed certain that Asuka was getting the upper hand.

"Pilot synchronization of EVA-03 is declining rapidly," reported Maya.

"Reason?" asked Dr. Akagi.

"Unknown, but it's declined 50% in the last 20 seconds," Maya continued.

"It's dropping off again," Ritsuko said to herself, "Like the last time."

Misato called out to Vance "EVA-03, are you OK?"

"I'm fine!" Vance replied, but he was panting heavily.

_Can't lose this time, I've got to take a chance_. He reached for something, just out of range of the internal plug camera.

Asuka meanwhile was enjoying her advantage, with multiple thrashing attacks with her arms on EVA-03. "Take that, and that! And THAT!!"

Maya checked her display and called out to Dr. Akagi. "EVA-03 synchronization just jumped up!"

_Now that's just not right_, Ritsuko thought to herself. "Up so fast? Interesting…"

"And now for the kill..." Asuka held her Prog Knife ready to strike. The practice blade was mostly dull rubber, not the metal normally used, but it would still dispense paint in the correct place, which was going to be EVA-03's jugular.

"Not so fast!" Suddenly EVA-03 jumped up and kicked EVA-02 across the street and into an inflatable building.

"Asuka, look out!" Misato shouted.

Asuka looked and saw a horrible sight. "Oh, no, not like this!" EVA-02 reached for her gun, which was lying on the street, but Vance had the jump on her. Before she could grab the pallet gun, EVA-03 had drawn its pistol and shot several paint rounds right into EVA-02 abdomen.

"Multiple wounds to EVA-02," reported Hyuga. 'She's knocked out!"

Asuka just sat there in her plug in silent disbelief as the alarms sounded. "...but I was winning..."

"Rei, watch out! It's just you now!" shouted Misato.

With the clock tower indicating there was only a minute to go, Vance knew he had to act quickly in order to win the match outright. He looked around his location and mentally calculated the distance from where he was all the way to the Japanese flag and EVA-00. It was a long way, nearly two kilometers. There wasn't enough time to run the distance and then fight for control, and that didn't count that he would be an easy target for EVA-00 by running in the open. Then he saw something parked on a nearby set of train rails and got another idea...

Rei scanned the horizon with her gun sight, her rifle scope being slaved to her plug display. She saw some sort of movement down one of the avenues but couldn't make it out. The game clock ticked down to 30 seconds. There was suddenly a crashing sound to her right.

She turned to see the noise and saw the large black mass of EVA-03 sliding head first on a pair of giant flatbed train cars that it was using like a giant skateboard. She trained her rifle on EVA-03, but before she could take a shot, the black EVA rammed into her head first, throwing her off balance.

Rei moved EVA-00 around to get up off the street, but EVA-03 had already stood up, the Red flag in one hand and a pistol in the other. She reached for her Prog Knife but the black EVA placed two paint rounds into her midsection before she could grab it. A second later, the horn went off.

"EVA-03 has captured the Red Flag." announced Lt Aoba. The NERV controllers in Central Dogma were in shock. The "rookie" Americans had just defeated them in very dramatic fashion. In the far background the American operations crew that had come with the two pilots and were also watching the match was cheering wildly, many chanting "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!".

Misato had to admit to herself that the Yankees had won this match soundly. "Match has ended." she announced. "Winner is the Visiting Team."

Shinji called out to Asuka. "Asuka! Are you OK?"

Asuka was quite angry. "Shinji! Where the hell were you? I needed you to back me up!"

But you said you could handle Vincent alone!" Shinji protested.

Asuka clenched her fists and looked as Shinji's image on her monitor with daggers in her eyes. "I HATE YOU!!!"

Shortly afterwards in the pilot briefing area Asuka, still dressed in her plug suit, violently protested to Misato. "Major, that was no fair! Those buildings are supposed to be there to simulate real, solid objects! The Americans just can't hide inside them!"

"Or shoot right through them!" Shinji joined in.

Misato turned around and faced the two pilots. She was furious. "Quite the contrary. First, I'll give credit where credit is due. Using the hollow simulated buildings was quite clever of Mr. Vinson, who immediately understood the conditions of the simulation. Second, in an actual battle, those buildings would be evacuated of people: there's nothing stopping you from quickly clearing out one and using it as cover against an enemy. Third, the biggest mistake both of you made was assuming your enemy was no where in sight and just walking into a trap! The other side didn't so much as win as you two lost! Neither one of you are either thinking outside the box or working as a team! Now would you care to explain that!?!?"

Asuka & Shinji looked at each other, hung their heads and sighed in unison.

In the male pilot dressing there was a much lighter atmosphere.

"Nice shooting, Tex!" Patrick high-fived with Vance.

"Thanks," he answered, as he started taking off his plug suit. "You think she'll be sore about it?"

"Who, Asuka?" Patrick replied. "I'm sure she'll be fine. You should let her win next time, just to soothe her ego!"

Vance laughed. "How about you? Not bad shooting yourself."

"Shinji was wilder this time," Patrick observed. "I think he doesn't do as well when he's not paired with the Redhead."

Vance smiled at that. "So he likes to get bossed around?"

"I guess. Still it wasn't a bad way to get killed," pondered Patrick.

"She should have shot you through the heart, not the head. Ouch!" Vance grabbed the side of his head as he felt a sudden, sharp pain.

Patrick saw him in pain and reached for a water bottle. "Are you OK? Double-V?"

Vance just sat there for a moment gripped in pain, and then just as suddenly relaxed as it went away. "No, I'm fine. Sorry, maybe it's the weather; I've been getting these weird migraines lately." Vance took the water bottle from the other pilot and gulped it down hard.

"Don't let it get to you, man," Patrick warned. To himself, however, Patrick began to become very worried about his friend.

In the Commander's office Ikari and Futsuyuki watched a video replay of the afternoon's challenge.

"An interesting spectacle." Futsuyuki observed dryly.

"Indeed. Their skills are appreciably good." replied the commander. "It would seem that we might have something else to be concerned about."

At that moment the phone buzzed. Futsuyuki picked up and found it was Dr. Akagi. He put her on speaker. Ritsuko was very direct. "One or both of them may be spoofing the EVA."

"How did you draw that conclusion?" asked Dr. Futsuyuki.

"EVA-03's sync rate fluctuated just too much during the combat simulation," Dr. Akagi explained. "The physiological system check during the combat only noticed a rapid change in heartbeat, but I'm sure something else was going on. There was also a very brief, but dramatic spike in brain pattern activity."

"What would bring this on?" asked Commander Ikari.

"That I still need to work on," she said. "But he's definitely using help to pilot the EVA."

"Is the same pattern also seen on EVA-04?" asked the Vice Commander.

"Not that I can see so far. I went so far as to contact NERV-2 in America, but they told me the pattern was actually 'normal' for the pilot, which I don't believe." The scientist paused for a moment, and then said, "I want to take in both pilots for a 'routine' medical check."

Gendo pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his forefinger, an odd habit he had since he was a child. "That would be difficult to explain to the Americans, and potentially a political headache for us, as we need to ensure NERV-2's cooperation at the current time. Can you investigate this in another way?"

Ritsuko Akagi thought for a moment. "With a bit of time it can be done."

"You have only a bit," Gendo said. "The next training round is coming in two days. Get it done by then."

"Roger," and she hung up.

"I don't think that the Americans can be trusted," Futsuyuki said afterwards.

"Yes, but their aims are still unclear," Gendo muttered. "It's not like the Americans to be that close to SEELE. They may have their own agenda. I just hope that we can find it out soon."

They were again interrupted, this time by Misato, who had marched across Commander Ikari's office and up to his desk.

"Major Katsuragi, what brings you here?" Futsuyuki asked. The expression on Misato's face was deadly serious. "I would like to make a request," she said.

"What is it?" the commander asked her.

Misato rarely looked so firm. "I request the immediate transfer of EVA-03 and Vance Vinson to NERV as soon as possible."

"Are you that impressed with his capabilities?" Gendo asked her.

"I am," she replied. "He fights better than any of our pilots by far. We need the very best here with us to defeat the Angels and right now he's the one."

Gendo and Futsuyuki looked at each other, and then Gendo told her "I see the merit, but making such a request could be problematic with the American side of the program." He of course knew what the real issue was.

_I'm sorry, Asuka._ "Then I'll trade him for EVA-02 and its pilot. She's undisciplined and out of control. I can't work with her if she continues to be this way. Besides, she's part American. I'm sure they can accept her into their own program."

Commander Ikari looked up at her. "Very well. We will consider your request."

"Thank you, sir." Misato saluted both of them, turned around and walked out of the office. Gendo and Futsuyuki waited until the door closed behind her.

"She certainly seems won over," Futsuyuki commented.

"I can't say that I blame her," Gendo replied. "It's her job to fight the Angels, and having both EVA-03 and -04 here eventually does fit into the master scheme. But this issue of the pilots needs to be addressed and quickly, or else we may lose control of our own program."

In the desert city, the man sat at his desk, reading reports on several sets of monitors. He felt a vibration inside his coat pocket and picked up a PDA that was the source of it. Reading the tiny video screen, he took a quick look at the information he had just received.

_Ikari, you sneaky bastard! No wonder that girl's so important to you. _ He continued to review the data snapshot he received, and smiled to himself.

_The old men gave you the key to Heaven and you're keeping it for yourself. _

He checked that the data on the PDA was backed up, and started to pour over what was more than five years in the getting. _Clever, making just one more unit, and in a way no one would suspect. Almost no one. _

In celebration of their victory over the home team the American support crew took Vance and Patrick out to dinner at what they thought was the best sushi restaurant in Tokyo-3. While the rest of the crew proceeded to slowly get inebriated and rowdy with the restaurant staff, the two pilots got themselves a table in a quieter corner and tried to enjoy their dinner. Neither boy was particularly excited.

"What are you doing?" Patrick asked Vance, as the taller boy attempted to pick up his tuna sushi with chopsticks, failing badly at it.

"Well, this is how you're supposed to eat them here, right?" he replied, dropping the piece.

"Believe it or not, you actually use your hands for this," Patrick said as he picked up a yellowtail one and popped it in his mouth.

"Oh, that's a relief! I can't stand having to use these things anyway." Vance dropped the chopsticks and then proceeded to have at the remaining sushi. Patrick just looked at him.

"Double-V?"

"Yeah?"

"Did the EVA ever try to do to you what…what it did with Erin?"

"Never," replied Vance, with his mouth partially full. "It never did anything like that."

"Hmm," pondered Patrick. "I'm still been trying to figure out what happened. Ever since then the dreams still keep coming."

"I'm sure you'll be alright," Vance said cheerfully. "Heck, your sync ratio's up past my level now. That's cool, isn't it?"

"I know, but…" The two boys sat there as they waited for another plate of sushi to be delivered. Vance's mobile phone then started to chime. He picked it up and looked at the caller ID, and then sighed a bit.

"Hi, Mom!.....No, everything's fine….no, not much jet lag, we're pretty good here….Yeah, it's just Patrick and me, and some of the guys from the base…Uh, no, we haven't had that much time to look around, really…" Vance smiled at Patrick and made a motion with his hand that told Patrick that the caller was talking way too much. Patrick smiled back. "…..Well, I think they wore those a long time ago, Mom, but if I see a pair of those wooden shoe things, I'll definitely get you one….Okay, yeah, you can see Mount Fuji from here, we're right next to it….I'll send you pictures, no problem….thanks, Mom….Love you too, bye!"

"She called, huh?" Patrick asked him.

"Yeah, she's worried sick that I'm overseas on my own." Vance leaned over the table and whispered to Patrick, "Dad didn't tell her what we're actually doing here."

"Does she know that you're a…" Patrick looked around to see who would hear him. "A pilot?"  
"No. Dad doesn't want to worry her too much. He just told her we're in some sort of junior military academy, that's all!"

They both went back to eating a bit, but Patrick couldn't each much more. After a long silence, he asked Vance. "Do you talk to your dad much?"

"Almost every other day," Vance said. "He's really busy, running defense at NERV-2 and all, but we still find the time."

"It must be nice," wondered Patrick.

"What's nice?"

"Having parents."

"Yeah. I guess it's easy to take for granted," mused Vance. "Have you ever heard from your dad at all?"

"Not a word. Not since I went over to his lab."

"That's got to suck, not knowing anything for so long," said Vance, gulping down another sushi. "Still, it seems like your uncle took good care of you. He's the one who taught you Japanese, right?"

"Yeah," said Patrick, smiling a little bit. "At the time I thought he was crazy! The ones I could speak to was him and the old Japanese guy in town who owned the teriyaki place."

"But even then he was getting you ready for this," Vance replied. "You must miss him a lot."  
Patrick sighed. "I do, but I just wish he would have just told me up front, not make it such a big secret."

"Maybe he wasn't in a position to," replied Vance, who decided to take another stab at using chopsticks again. "Besides, if you had found out about Erin, you'd try to contact her, right?"

"Yeah."

"And that blows your value as a backup," Double-V said. "You were safe from someone who might want to mess with the program because you were a secret."

"Still sucks," said Patrick.

Vance dropped his toro sushi right into his soup bowl, and scowled. "Everything about this sucks!"


	9. Chapter 8: Invitation

CHAPTER EIGHT

That evening in his apartment, Ryoji Kaji took the chemical sample he obtained from the American pilots' luggage and placed it in an analyzer on his desk next to his computer. Within the next few minutes the sample was examined by various sensors and after several moments the computer screen displayed the results:

UNKNOWN COMPOUND.

Kaji picked up his mobile phone and dialed a long, but very familiar number. A voice answered.

"Hello. Yes, it's me. I need to have a sample rush examined. I'm unsure, it's some sort of neural control serum. Yes, I'll drop off at the usual place."

He hung up the phone. Kaji looked at the screen for a few moments and then glanced at the photo next to his computer: a college photo of him, Ritsuko Akagi and Misato Katsuragi, all leaning on his college car, an old 1991 Porsche 911. They were all smiling, his arms around both of the girls. His thoughts then turned back to the sample. _ Interesting._

In the desert city, it was early morning. The man sat at his desk, again examining a wide variety of reports displayed on monitors, including a large holographic display behind his desk. As he did so, his administrative officer again opened the door and leaned inside slightly.

"Another message from MICHAEL, sir," the young officer said.

"What is it?" asked the man.

"He says he will be ready with the package in two days."

The man smiled. "Good. Be sure that all preparations are made accordingly. "

At the same time, within the deeper levels of the GeoFront, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi walked down an isolated tunnel and opened an air-locked door. The doorplate read in both English and Japanese: "MAGI COLD MEMORY ARCHIVE."

As she opened the door, chilled air came out of the room as she donned a heavy parka she brought with her to go inside. Ritsuko spoke to herself (or was it someone else?) as she entered the room and started to switch on the access terminal there, iced over in the sub-freezing temperature. "Now, Mother, I can't believe you didn't think of this earlier. Let's see what we can find." Once the access terminal booted up and showed an entry screen, she logged in and started her searching.

For some reason the dream that night seemed more vivid than usual. Patrick could clearly see the everything inside the entry plug around him - it had filled with LCL and the video monitors were all turned on to various data displays, or views of the outside of the EVA. He heard voices speaking around him, but this time they were more distinct.

"Entry plug inserted," the operator reported over the plug speakers. "Commencing activation of Unit 04."

An older voice then came on: "Everything okay, Erin?"

Patrick heard himself speak with a girl's voice. "Sure, sure. I'm fine. I just wish we could get this over with so we can go home."

"I know," the older voice replied. "It's just a routine activation test, so bear with us a little longer."

"Alrighty," Erin Forrestal sighed.

The controller checked in again. "Dr. Forrestal, Everything reports normal so far."

"Very good," the older voice replied. "Proceed with synchronization."

Patrick could hear his stomach growl. "Suddenly I'm very hungry."

"So how about Chinese tonight?" the older voice asked her.

"That sounds good. I could really go for some Walnut Cream Shrimp ...What's that?" Patrick/Erin looked ahead and saw some cloud-looking form at the far end of the entry plug.

The controller had also noticed something. "There's an unusual reading in the entry plug."

"What is it?" asked Dr. Forrestal.

"It's some sort of energy form," the controller said, "But I can't determine the type."

The cloud moved closer to the pilot, and began to take a physical shape, something that looked like a woman, but with no features. The cloud woman drifted right up to Erin's face as she looked at it. The face of the woman was blank at first, and then it started to take shape.

"Who are you?" Erin asked the cloud. Patrick could feel her heart pulsing.

"Energy reading is increasing dramatically," the controller shouted.

"Stop the activation!" ordered Dr Forrestal. "Erin? Erin!?"

The face of the cloud woman suddenly formed sockets where the eyes were supposed to go, then teeth appeared and the face transformed into that of a skull. The cloud sprouted arms that moved to touch the pilot's head. Patrick could feel a bone-chilling sensation as the demon's hands moved along the skin of the face.

"Get away from me!" Erin called out at she struggled to leave the throne.

Patrick could hear his father calling on the speaker. "Erin!! Force eject the plug!" The controller could not get the EVA to comply, however. "Entry plug not responding, sir!"

Patrick watched helplessly as the white ghost moved its face right up against Erin's, as she struggled to leave the pilot seat. The mouth of the apparition stretched wide and he could feel an icy gust of wind rushing against his face as the ghost wailed loudly. His stomach twisted suddenly as he heard the ghost gurgle out something incomprehensible. Erin screamed in terror.

Dr. Forrestal called in the microphone "ERIN!!!"

Patrick literally jumped up from his bed, also screaming. He looked around and saw that he was in the apartment again, back in Tokyo-3. He could feel the cold sweat along his forehead and his hair was all standing on end. He squeezed his palms to be sure he was conscious.

_Oh, God...what the hell happened?_

The following day, at #1 Prefecture Middle School...

SATURDAY

As she did every morning Rei Ayanami walked to her school locker and opened the door to place some of her books inside, and take out other ones. However, this morning as she did so a small envelope fell out and floated to the ground. Rei silently stooped down to pick up the envelope, which was addressed only as "REI " written in roman characters (in English), and opened the envelope. She took out a folded piece of letterhead paper and read it. It was handwritten in English, with all capital letters.

DEAR REI:

PLEASE MEET ME TOMORROW AT NOON AT OLD HAKONE CENTRAL PARK, AT THE LARGEST TREE BY THE TRAIN STATION ENTRANCE. I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO TALK WITH YOU AGAIN.

SEE YOU THERE!

PATRICK

PS HOPEFULLY YOU CAN READ MY ENGLISH!

PPS I LIKE YOU

Rei looked at the invitation again carefully and folded it back inside the envelope and placed it in her school bag. Then, as always, she closed her locker and went to class.

In classroom 2-A the other students, including the two American visitors, were already seated at their desks. It was in the morning break period after the first two classes. In Japan there was still school on Saturdays, but only in the mornings.

Patrick noticed first that Rei entered the room. He whispered to the others "Here she comes!"

Several pairs of eyes were on Rei as she took her seat by the window. As the teacher started to address the class, the students were all on their school-issued red notebook PCs. While feinting interest in the math teacher's lecture, they were also messaging each other in the classroom's network chat room.

VISITOR1: Do you think she got my note?

IKARISHINJI: I think so. You put it in her box like I said, right?

VISITOR1: Yes. Any way she would skip over it?

IKARISHINJI: No, she should see it.

SORYUASUKA: Don't tell me you're still stuck on this, are you?

VISITOR2: Give the guy a chance, Asuka!

SORYUASUKA: I'm not speaking to you, you bastard!

VISITOR2: Oohh, we're still sore are we?

"Would you shut up?!" Asuka said aloud.

Nearly everyone in the class turned around and stared at Asuka as she realized what she just did. "Oh, sorry!" she said sheepishly as she turned her attention back to the chat session.

VISITOR1: She's not making eye contact with me.

SUZUHARATOJI: There's no way she's going to! Ayanami-chan's an Ice Queen; she's never going to give you the time of day.

VISITOR 1: It's worked out so far.

SUZUHARATOJI: Personally I'd pay 10,000 Yen to see you two go on a date. I think that would be most entertaining.

AIDAKENSUKE: You're on!

HORAKIHIKARI; Guys! You are so horrible! Everyone feels so sorry for her. I for one think that Patrick should take her out. At least let her have some sort of a life for once!

AIDAKENSUKE: Teacher's on to us!

With Kensuke's warning everyone quickly clicked out of chat and focused on the class. The teacher was now calling on students to explain problems on the chalkboard. Nearly forty silent prayers went up as the teacher looked for someone to pick on.

"Ayanami, come to the board please," the old teacher commanded.

Rei stood up. "Yes, sir."

Several sighs were audibly heard as Rei walked to the chalkboard. There she wrote down a fairly complex mathematical equation and explained the equation to the teacher and the class. Satisfied, the teacher next called on Suzahara, who gave a loud groan as he got up from his desk.

As Rei walked back to her seat Pat tried to get her attention by making eye contact with her again. She only gave him one cold glance and sat back in her seat.

Patrick sighed. _This is going to be harder than I thought._

Later that afternoon in Central Tokyo-3 Shinji and Misato walked along the sidewalk of Tokyo-3's shopping district. The shops here were an eclectic collection of antiques, clothing stores, electronic stores or _denkis_, and gift shops, with restaurants and cafes scattered throughout. Being that is was a Saturday afternoon, the sidewalk was crowded with shoppers. Shinji was still dressed in his school uniform, but Misato wore a red mini-dress with mule sandals and her best handbag, with her hair worn long held together with a multi-color holographic hair band.

"So the American actually had the guts to ask our Rei on a date?" Misato asked Shinji.

"Yeah," Shinji replied, "But I don't think she'll do it. She's never that kind of person."

"Still," Misato said, "It's really cute just to think about it." She turned to Shinji and smiled. "And you're cute too, for trying to help!"

"I didn't know what to do, really," said Shinji. "I didn't want him to be too disappointed, as he's a guest."

Misato narrowed her glance at Shinji and pointed her finger at his chest. "Or maybe it's YOU who really wants the date?" Shinji was taken aback, as she had just hit a little too close to home. "Uh, Misato, it's not like that..."

"Sure, sure. Any way, you're _mine_ this afternoon!" She tugged at his arm, wrapping her hand around his arm much like a girlfriend would. "So let's you and me pick out something for her to wear."

"You mean we're going to shop for clothes for her?" he asked. "Don't you think her uniform is good enough?"

Misato sighed. "Rei is the only 14-year old girl I know that wears her school uniform on Sunday. She's got to get another outfit if she's going to do this."

"But I have no idea what she likes!" said Shinji.

She laughed a little. "Silly boy! We're going to pick this out _for_ her. Oh, let's go in here..." Misato grabbed Shinji by the hand and dragged him into a nearby ladies boutique.

Except one time with Asuka, Shinji had never been shopping for women's clothing before. The boutique was crowded with young and middle-aged ladies. With perfume and voices and the ambient music the store was playing, it was a very heavy sensory experience for the faint-hearted, of which Shinji was certainly one of.

"Uh, Misato…" Shinji was shaking nervously. Misato paid him no mind but let go of his hand and immediately went to work in the trendy young women's section. She first set eyes on a blue dress with mesh and lace on top of a mannequin with, oddly enough, short blue hair. ."Hmm, let's see… No, that's too formal for a date in the park." She searched for a while on one of the racks, found something, and pulled out a short black and white plaid skirt. "That's more like it! Let's see the size...Ah, yes! That should fit fine. I'm so glad I have the plug suit measurements; it takes all the guess work out of this! "

Shinji, now separated from Misato, was wondering around the store and managed to be bumped into the lingerie section. A wide collection of women's underwear filled Shinji's field of vision.

"Umm, Major..."

Misato couldn't hear him where she was. "She's going to need some shoes, those school shoes just don't work. Hmm, sandals? No, maybe she's not used to wearing them. How 'bout these loafers...that'll do. Now, to catch his eye a little!"

"Misato..."

"It might be a little breezy tomorrow… Oh, those are really cute stockings! But, no, not really her. Let's go a little conservative; those black tights will do fine." She took a red plastic package and added it to her shopping basket along with the skirt.

Hopelessly lost, Shinji was whimpering as he tried desperately to find his guardian above the din and crowds of the store "Misato???"

Unfortunately Misato was completely absorbed in her mission. "Now we need a good top for her." She saw a black sleeveless tank, with a plunging neckline. "No, too open. She's going to be too exposed wearing this. She has such a nice figure! I'm so envious of her!" Then she saw something she liked and pulled it off the wall display. "Okay! Hey, Shin-chan, how about this?" She looked around for Shinji as she held up a mid-sleeve white turtleneck sweater.

Shinji turned around at the sound of her voice and suddenly found himself face to face with a red-haired mannequin dressed in nothing but a racy red brassiere and thong. It was just too much for him, as he could feel his face go flush and his nose started to bleed.

"MISATO!!!!"

Fifteen minutes later Misato and Shinji walked along the boulevard again, this time Shinji was now carrying several large shopping bags.

"I swear I can't take you anywhere," she said to him, slightly annoyed. "You spend all day with girls in plug suits and you get hot and sweaty over a mannequin wearing a bra!"

He looked away from her. "Sorry, Misato"

"At least we got it all done. And I got some extra stuff for myself!" she said cheerfully.

"But you had to buy those to shut up the store manager." Shinji retorted.

Misato sneered at Shinji. "You know, Shinji, sometimes you're just too honest for your own good!"

Meanwhile the two American boys were hanging out in their temporary apartment. Patrick was working on his jigsaw puzzle, a 1,000 piece set with a photo of a geisha that he picked up locally, while Vance was watching baseball on the TV and drinking a sports drink. He turned to Patrick, who was highly focused on his puzzle.

"So what's the plan?" Vance asked his roommate.

Patrick didn't look up at him but was scanning the puzzle pieces spread all over the table. "Tomorrow at 12, at the Old Hakone Central Park."

"Do you think she'll show up?"

Patrick turned from his puzzle as he put in another piece and was rewarded with a changing holographic image. "I don't know, really. Ikari-kun said he was going to talk to the Major about getting her to go."

"You know," Vance warned, "even if you go through with this, we're only here for a few more days and then back to the States."

Patrick scratched his head. "I know, but, still I'd kick myself for not trying."

Vance leaned on the couch and folded his arms. "Do you know what you're going to do?"

Patrick didn't seem that confident. "I figure we'll just walk around the shopping area and find something to eat, talk a bit."

Vance smiled. "That's probably not going to work on this girl. Here, if you get stuck, I've got an idea." He leaned over to him and whispered something in Patrick's ear.

"Really? That works?" Patrick asked.

"Just try it."

A couple of hours later Shinji appeared in front of Apartment 402 and knocked loudly at the door. He was holding a blue gift box. After a few moments Rei came to the door, still wearing her school uniform.

"Ikari-kun?" She was surprised to see him.

Shinji bowed down and presented the box to Rei with both hands. Still with his head bowed, Shinji said out loud in an official-sounding voice: "Per Major Katsuragi's orders, in the interest of further cooperation between the Japanese and American branches of the NERV organization, we humbly request that tomorrow afternoon you escort the American pilot Mr. Forrestal as per his request. Also, as per the Major's order, you are requested to wear this...uniform while you are on this duty. That is all."

Blushing, Rei looked at Shinji. "Ikari-kun?"

Shinji was still not looking up as she took the box. "Yes?"

"If it's an order from the Major, I will do it."

"Really?" He looked up at her. As usual she had no real expression, but her voice seemed sincere to him.

"Yes." Rei opened the box and began to examine the contents. Something in particular caught her interest. "Ikari-kun?"

"Yes?" he asked.

"I have a question." She took something from the box.

"What is it?"

"How do you wear this?" Rei unfurled the black tights from the red package and showed them to Shinji. Confronted with the unmistakably feminine intimate apparel, Shinji promptly fainted directly in front of Rei.


	10. Chapter 9: The Date

CHAPTER NINE

SUNDAY

Kensuke Aida checked his watch. It was 11:55 AM, and he had been observing Patrick Forrestal pacing nervously at the park for over a half an hour. Aida had arrived there early to find a good hiding place. Once they had heard that Rei agreed to Patrick's date, he and the other students from 2-A had decided to shadow them: the whole concept of the morose Rei going on an actual date with anyone had peaked their very morbid curiosity. He had found a good, but distant hiding place in the park, inside a wooden shelter surrounded by trees, and, being Kensuke, master of all things camera, he had been working on a way to keep track of the couple without their being aware.

He had given his location to Shinji, who in turn told everyone else, and at the moment the "gang," which included Shinji, Asuka, Hikari and Toji from 2-A had just arrived. They were dressed in summer clothes, Kensuke in camouflage pants and combat boots (both old Japanese Land SDF issue) and tank top, Shinji in a t-shirt and shorts, Asuka in a pleated blue miniskirt and striped tank top, and Hikari in a yellow jumper and striped sweater. Toji wore his black track suit again. Also with them were Vance Vinson and Misato Katsuragi, who had apparently invited herself.

It was a warm and slightly breezy day: a good day for getting out, and a relief from the humidity that so often plagued Japan.

Misato called out to Kensuke. She was wearing her favorite black mini-dress with hoop earrings and driving sunglasses, her trademark cross was around her neck. "Well, we're all here! Did he show up?"

Kensuke pointed to Patrick, who was dressed in a red and white sweater and chinos, checking his watch and looking around anxiously. He was holding a blue rose in his right hand. "Yes. See, he's waiting in the right spot."

"He left our place rather early," said Vance, who wore a red and white TOKYO-3 LIVE sweatshirt and jeans. "How long has he been there?"

"He was already there before I showed up," said Kensuke, "And that was about 30 minutes ago."

Asuka noticed the rose Patrick was holding. "What? He's got a flower?! How cliché!"

Misato noticed the flower too. "Oh, a blue rose! What an interesting choice. I wonder if he knows the meaning of it."

"I can't believe we're doing this!" Toji grumbled.

"Kensuke, what's that?" asked Shinji.

Kensuke showed Shinji his hand controller and the box it came in. "That's the remote control of my new camera." On the box was a photo of an aircraft, one that resembled the V/STOL aircraft that NERV operated, but much smaller. "Actually, it's a miniature remote control airplane equipped with a camera and microphone. That way we can spy on our lovebirds from a safe distance."

Everyone gathered around the small handheld video controller that Kensuke had, and saw a color image of Patrick in the park. Kensuke swung the video aspect around and panned around the park to the location of the train entrance. There, walking straight from the access way was Rei. She was completely without emotional expression, but she was wearing the entire outfit that Shinji had given her: black and white plaid skirt, white turtleneck top, black loafers and black tights. She also was wearing a small silver cross around her neck, something that Misato had thrown into the gift box earlier, telling Shinji "it just suited her."

"Here she comes, right on time," Kensuke observed.

"I don't believe it!" exclaimed Toji.

"You owe me 10,000 Yen," Kensuke coolly replied.

Hikari looked closely at the image of Rei. "Oh, you two! Wow, I didn't know she had other clothes!"

Shinji had noticed too. "She wore the outfit!"

"Outfit?" asked Asuka. "Where did that come from?"

"Oh, Misato-san bought it for her," Shinji replied.

"Oh, really?" Asuka said coyly.

Misato of course, was quite proud of her choice. "Yeah, doesn't she look cute?"

"She looks goofy!" Asuka snarled.

Misato glanced at her with a smile. "Oh, jealous, I see."

Asuka scowled back at her. "Don't make me sick!"

Patrick turned around and saw Rei walking towards him. He waived to her to be sure she knew where he was standing. She didn't wave back and just walked straight to the tree.

"Hi there! You came!" he said.

"Yes." She looked at him with a little puzzled expression. "Are you surprised?"

Patrick was very nervous. "Yes, er, No, uh, well, I wasn't sure actually."

"I was ordered to be here by Major Katsuragi," .

"Oh? "

"Yes," She continued. "She said it was part of my mission to accompany you today."

"I see. And she also supplied you with this?" He pointed to her new outfit.

"Ikari-kun gave this to me."

_Wow, he likes her more than I realized, _Patrick thought."Um, here!" Patrick gave the rose to Rei. "This is for you."

Rei didn't take the gift at first, but just looked at it. "Why?"

"Well," said a flustered Patrick. "I'd thought you'd like it!"

Rei did as he asked, and examined the blue rose carefully, and then looked at him again. "This has been killed."

_Oh, boy._ "Well, it was freshly cut today. Anyway, let's go!"

"Where are we going?" she asked him.

"Just walking around!"

"Do we have a destination?" she inquired, still standing there.

"I was thinking of the shopping plaza," Patrick replied and started to walk out of the park. Rei said nothing but simply followed alongside as he walked onto the boulevard.

Kensuke motioned to the flying camera to follow the couple to the shopping district. The miniature aircraft flew at a little over two meters, just above the heads of the shoppers walking down the sidewalks. Kensuke then tilted the engines upward to hover, then swiveled the camera/aircraft 180 degrees and then had it flying backwards so that the camera head and microphone could focus on Patrick and Rei while the aircraft flew slightly ahead of them.

The din of the crowds on the street prevented them from hearing anything of what they were saying, but the video image was quite clear. The whole group crushed together around the video screen and saw a very nervous Patrick trying to talk to Rei. She didn't say much of anything, but just walked along side him loosely holding the blue rose in her hand.

"Where are they going?" asked Vance.

"It looks like they're just walking around the shopping arcade," observed Kensuke.

"She doesn't look very happy," said a bored Toji.

"Shut up, already!" snapped Kensuke. "I'm trying to follow them"

On the video screen, they could see Patrick drop his hand down to his side and brush up against Rei. Just as he very slightly tried to reach for her hand, Rei clasped her hands directly in front of her and kept walking. Patrick looked at her for a second and then kept trying to start a conversation.

"Oh, there he goes with the hand…almost!" cried Vance.

"I think that she's avoiding him," commented Hikari.

Misato turned to Shinji. "Shinji, how do you think its going?"

A worried Shinji looked up at Misato. "I don't think Ayanami even knows what she's supposed to do!"

Asuka, on the other hand, was clearly humored by the haplessness of the First Child. "Look at her, she's so pathetic!"

Completely unaware of the surveillance, Patrick's mind went into overdrive trying to figure out a way to just talk to the silent girl besides him. _ Maybe Shinji was right, she's so introverted that she doesn't even know how to respond. Still though, the biology about her all shouts "female!" There has to be a missing piece somewhere..._

Patrick pointed out a trendy clothing store to Rei. "Rei, would you like to go inside?"

"Why?" she asked.

"Well," Patrick said, becoming increasingly more nervous. "Don't you want to get something for yourself?"

"I do not require anything."

"You don't want some other new clothes?"

"I have what is necessary."

"What about some jewelry? Earrings, or a handkerchief, or something?"

"I have no need of it."

"Okay, let's try something else. How about this place?" Patrick pointed to a media store that sold music, video, software and other items.

"I do not listen to music," she replied.

Patrick stopped in his tracks. _You've got to be kidding_. "You…don't…listen…to music."

"Sometimes I will listen as is necessary," she corrected, as she stopped next to him.

"Such as?"

"I am being instructed in how to play the viola."

"The viola? Really? You can play? "

"I have only begun lessons recently," she continued. "It was a suggestion from Commander Ikari."

"Shinji's father."

"Yes. He suggested it would be good for me to learn."

"Is that why you're at NERV all the time?" Patrick inquired.

"That is only some of the reason," Rei said. "There are many things I do at NERV."

"Like what?" Patrick hoped that he wasn't too pushy.

"I cannot tell you without Commander Ikari's permission. However, they are all for the success of the Evangelion project." She turned away from him and continued walking down the street.

Patrick saw a crowd in front and then turned a corner into a small side street. Rei followed him down the street. The flying camera, still flying backwards, lost sight of both of them.

"Where are they?" Toji asked.

"They slipped around a corner somewhere," replied Kensuke. "Let me check the camera."

Kensuke noticed that the camera was bumping up against something and swiveled it around. The object looked like some sort of large black box. Also, the sound feedback from the microphones was very loud. He quickly pulled out the earplugs and tried to concentrate on flying. The camera image was very wobbly, but could make out a large crowd of onlookers, many of them girls, all looking at something happening on the street. He flew the camera over where the crowd was looking at and found himself looking very closely at the face of some guy playing guitar.

Misato, Shinji, and Asuka recognized the man immediately: it was Aoba, one of the NERV controllers, only today he was a street performer playing electric guitar for the crowd.

Kensuke tried to pivot the camera away from the guitar player but found it difficult to get the camera to respond: the engines had been damaged from the collision with the black speakers. Clearly a little amused, but mostly annoyed, Aoba looked directly at the cameraplane, quickly took his two forefingers off the guitar and flicked them right at its nose. The camera immediately went dead.

"WHAT??? THAT THING COST ME A FORTUNE!!!" Kensuke shook the controller trying to get some sort of response, but to no avail. The rest of the kids just watched in horror, while Misato started to giggle very loudly.

Down the alleyway, Patrick desperately tried to find something, anything that would get Rei's interest. He stopped in front of a cute-character stationary store.

"Rei, is there anything you would want from here? She shook her head.

_Wait a minute, why didn't I think of this before?_ "How about books?" he asked.

"I do not require any additional ones at the moment. I can obtain every book I need from the library."

Patrick looked at her. "You're probably a regular customer there."

"Customer?" she cocked her head. "I do not purchase the books. Do you do that in America?"

"Only if they're late!" He laughed, but Rei just looked at him. "Oh, not funny huh?" _That's strange, _he thought to himself._ That was a lame joke, but she doesn't even laugh politely. _

"Rei? Are you hungry?"

"I ate before coming here."

_She really doesn't know anything, does she?_ You ate before coming? Well, usually on a date, the guy treats the girl. They didn't tell you that?"

She shook her head again.

"Did they tell you anything else?"

"No," she replied. "Just to walk with you."

Patrick scratched his head. "Well, no shopping, no lunch, I don't think a movie would be very appropriate either, and walking like this is kind of boring. So, time for Plan B. Rei?" She looked up at him.

"Will you come to the coffee shop with me?"

"Yes."

"Good." _Basically she just goes where she's ordered_, analyzed Patrick. _A bit like Shinji, actually, but much more introverted. She must live a very controlled life, as it seems like a lot of things are not "required." I wonder if Double-V's plan would work._

Patrick searched around the alley and found what seemed like a good place. He took a good look at the outside menus to be sure they had what he needed. Then both of them entered the cafe and took a booth alongside the front window of the shop.

In the meantime the Gang of 2-A was struggling to reacquire their target. After Kensuke's remote cameraplane crashed, the group of them hurried from the central park to the part of the shopping district where they thought the camera had gone down, in the hopes of spotting Rei and Patrick.

"Where did they go?" panted Misato as she hurried down the boulevard. "We've looked everywhere!"

"I have no idea," replied Vance. "I can barely read street signs in this place!"

"Who cares?! Let's just go!" Asuka complained.

Hikari turned to her. "Don't you want to know what happens?"

"It was kind of obvious already!" the redhead retorted.

Shinji took a good look at one of the cafes in an alleyway. "Misato! Over there!" He was pointing at a cafe window, where a familiar pair were now seen sitting by a front window.

Misato saw it too and called it out. "Good eye, Shinji, They're in that cafe!" She pointed it out and everyone started to hurry to the cafe across the alley. "I have to see how this turns out," Vance said to himself as he followed the others. There was one of them however, who was less than enthusiastic.

Kensuke held his broken cameraplane, its engines damaged and its nose crumpled in, with tears streaming out of his eyes. "Why did you have to die so young???"

Not long after Patrick and Rei sat down, a waitress came to take their order. "Can I get you something?" she asked.

"We would like some ice cream, please," said Patrick.

"Of course! What flavor would you like?"

"I would like Rainbow Sherbet."

"And you?" She looked at Rei. Rei had a quizzical look on her face.

"What flavor would you like?" Patrick asked her.

Rei silently pondered the moment and then said "I don't know…I've never eaten ice cream before."

"Never?" Patrick asked.

"Correct."

"Maybe she would like something else?" the waitress suggested.

"Actually, let me suggest something," Patrick said. "Can she have vanilla?" He looked at Rei as he said this, who just had a sullen look on her face. "Yes, Vanilla is perfect for her."

"Sure, coming right up!" The waitress then left the table. After she left, there was an awkward silence between the two of them as they waited.

Unknown to the couple the Gang of 2-A had just entered the cafe. Misato motioned for the group to be quiet as she got a large booth for them that was on a raised level about a meter above the ground floor, with a railing at the edge of the booth. Here they had a good view of the couple across the cafe but it wasn't too close. Once in the booth the gang all tried to get a good look at Rei and Patrick silently sitting and looking at each other. Her flower was just lying there on the table.

"There they are!" Misato said in a loud whisper. "I wonder what they're doing."

"He's going to Plan B," said Vance.

"Plan B?" asked Shinji.

"I gave him a suggestion if the original date plan didn't work out."

"I see," said Misato.

Another waitress came to the table. "Would you all like something?" The kids all started to clamor before Misato tried to calm down everyone.

"Shush, not so loud! Can we all just order some ice cream?"

The waitress was a little puzzled at the scene before her. "Sure, what would you like?"

"Red Bean, please!" asked Hikari.

"Just Chocolate, Ma'am," said Vince.

"Mint Chip," said Kensuke, who was unpacking his regular portable video camera, and who sat next to the railing.

"Uh, Strawberry," said Toji

"Strawberry???" teased Asuka. "You're kidding, right? What are you, Seven years old?"

"Hey! I like Strawberry!"

"Keep it down!" Misato protested.

"And you miss?" The waitress looked at Asuka.

"Hmm, let's see…Shinji! What are you having?"

"I don't know, Green Tea, I guess," he replied.

"Green Tea? Boring!!" Asuka exclaimed. "I'll have the Triple Stack Sundae, with marshmallow topping!"

Ok, then, the waitress turned to Misato. "And you miss?"

"Do you have beer flavor?" she asked.

Suddenly everyone at the table went silent and looked straight at their adult companion.

The waitress blushed. "Oh...well, not today, Miss."

"Oh, well, just coffee is fine then." The waitress then left, and Misato turned around to see the whole table staring at her.

"What?!"

The waitress came back to Patrick and Rei's booth with two glass dishes of ice cream. "Here you go. Enjoy!"

"Thanks," Patrick replied, and their waitress left them alone.

Rei glared at her dish like it was poison served up on a platter. Patrick said nothing but took up his own spoon and started on his own sherbet. He kept one eye on her as she cautiously took her spoon, scooped a small portion of ice cream, and gently tasted it in her mouth. She seemed to be analyzing the ice cream, as least that's what Patrick thought, then she went for another scoop, and then another, and pretty soon she had finished the whole dish.

"Well?" he asked her.

She thought for a long moment, and softly said "Good."

"Would you like some more?"

"Is that alright?" she asked.

Patrick was ecstatic. "It's American tradition! You should choose another flavor, though."

"What should I choose?"

He grabbed the menu from its holder on the table. "It's on the menu here. Some of the flavors must be local. I don't recognize them."

Their waitress saw them looking at the menus and came around to the booth again. "Would you like something else?" she asked.

"More ice cream, please," said Patrick. "What is your most popular flavor here?"

"It's Green Tea."

"I'd like that, please. Rei, what would you like?"

Rei thought about it for a moment. "Red Bean, please."

"Sure, coming right up!" and then the waitress left again.

"That's a flavor?" Patrick asked Rei.

"Red Bean is a Japanese delicacy, enjoyed for hundreds of years as a desert," she matter-of-factly replied.

"Well," he wondered aloud, "It's still hard to imagine bean and ice cream together."

The gang across the cafe received their first ice cream run as they watched the slow mating dance in front of them. Vance was very excited. "He's making his move! That's my boy!"

"You're really getting into this!" observed Misato, sitting next to him.

Only Toji started on his strawberry ice cream with an incredibly bored look on his face: "I don't believe we're wasting an afternoon doing this!"

Within two minutes, the waitress returned to the booth with two more dishes. "Here you go!"

"Thanks!" said Patrick. He tried his own ice cream. "Hmm…tastes like tea alright, but creamy. Pretty Good. Rei, How about your...Wow! You're really going into that, aren't you?"

Rei faintly smiled, as she rapidly ate the second bowl. _A smile! _Patrick thought._ Finally, we're getting somewhere._

"Are you done?" he asked.

Rei nodded, still with a smile on her face.

"Would you like another one?"

She blushed a little. "Is it okay?"

"Okay? It's more than okay! Here, let's try this. Waitress???" Patrick excitedly waived his hand until the young waitress came over.

"Yes?"

"I'd like this, please." He pointed to the photo on the menu.

"Wow! You two sure like ice cream!"

"Please make sure it looks just like this one in the picture," Patrick requested.

"Okay!" and then she hurried off again.

Patrick turned to Rei. "You didn't know what you were missing, did you?"

"I was never given ice cream before." She was back to being dead serious.

"Don't they serve it at school?"

"In Japan most students usually bring their lunch to school," she replied. "The school may sell some items, but ice cream is not one of them."

"Who packs your lunch, Rei?"

"Dr. Akagi provides specially-prepared meals, precisely balanced for nutrition and ease of digestion."

_Uh, oh. This might backfire._

"Here it is!" The waitress had returned with Patrick's request.

Patrick looked at Rei. "Well?" Rei's eyes got wide at the big spectacle lying before them: a large banana split. Patrick noticed that she was holding her spoon anxiously. "You can get started now!" he told her.

"Oh my God! How much ice cream can those two eat?" Kensuke said, as he filmed every minute. The rest of the gang had their eyes glued to the booth as they worked on their own dishes.

"Asuka, do you mind?" protested Shinji as she stole from his own bowl. She ignored him as she kept watch over her nemesis across the floor.

Vance kept watching, but suddenly grabbed his head in pain. Misato quickly noticed him, "Are you alright?" she whispered.

"Brain freeze!" he replied.

Rei quickly worked with her spoon at the banana split. "This is more difficult. The hot sauce melts the ice cream faster, causing it to mix with the other ingredients. The different tastes combine together."

"That's part of the fun," commented the American. "You know, that's the first time you've said something that wasn't an answer to a question."

Rei said nothing, but just kept eating.

Patrick worked on his own side of the bowl. "The Second Child doesn't like you very much, does she?"

"The Second Child has a superiority complex that makes it difficult for her to accept anyone at her level. She feels a compelling need to defeat anyone and anything she comes into contact with."

"...including Ikari-kun," Patrick added.

Rei looked up at him. "It is true that she conflicts with him, but she is also dependent on him. Inside her mind, she accepts him but cannot allow anyone to see it, including Ikari-kun himself."

_Wow._ "It's amazing that you know all of this!"

"I observe the Second and Third every day," she said flatly. "Anyone with a basic understanding of human psychology can observe the relationship between the two."

"Is that from the reading that you always do?" he asked her.

As she kept eating the split, her tone of her voice was now starting to warm up with more emotion. "Sometimes. Sometimes it's different things. Books about birds, volcanoes, mathematics, poetry, history. Each day I have a new question and I try to answer it."

"By reading?"

"Yes."

Patrick paused for a bit. "Some things are only learned by doing."

Rei didn't reply, but silently kept at her desert.

"You probably have some funny stories about your fellow pilots!"

"Funny?" she asked.

"You know, really unusual. You can think of something .unintelligent that they did recently, can't you?"

She had a long, thoughtful moment, as she tried to think of what Patrick meant. "There was a battle against the Seventh Angel. The Second and Third had to fight as a team and they had much difficulty to get their routine correct. Finally after several days of practice they performed a perfect tandem assault against the angel. Right afterwards, Ikari's EVA fell on top of the Second's EVA and it looked like...it looked like…" She had suddenly started to giggle. "They were...they were…" She was now holding her hand over her mouth.

"…mating?" Patrick calmly suggested.

"YES!!!" Rei started giggling uncontrollably, still covering her mouth with her hands.

Both of them had a good laugh, until Rei suddenly caught herself.

_What was I just doing just now?_

The scene across the cafe caused a number of very audible gasps at the other end.

"I don't believe it!" Misato exclaimed.

Vance was overjoyed. "Finally, he broke through! YES!" But Asuka was less than happy.

"What the hell is that bitch doing! Let me see!!!" Asuka climbed over both a very annoyed Shinji and Toji to get a better look at the First.

"Asuka, quit pushing!"

"Hey, that's my face!"

With Asuka's pressure on the gang of students leaning on the railing, the plastic railing finally gave way, and the whole group of them (save Misato, who being on the far end of the table managed to jump out of the way) crashed onto the floor directly opposite Rei and Patrick's booth. Rei turned around at the sudden noise and found herself looking directly into Asuka's blue eyes.

"Uh oh! We're spotted! Run!" Patrick slammed down a yen note on the table, grabbed Rei by the hand, and they both quickly ran out of the cafe.

Their waitress hurried over to their booth and picked up the money, sitting next to the blue rose left on the table. It was a 10,000 Yen note worth 100 dollars. "Wait a minute!" she called out to them. "This is too much!!!" They were already too far away to hear her, however.

As the pile of middle school students tried to pull themselves off the floor, the manager of the cafe, a tall burly bald-headed man with sunglasses, accosted Misato. "What do you think you're doing??? You're going to pay for all that!" He then quickly went into a tirade about the rising costs of interior fixtures in Japan since Second Impact. All Misato could do was nervously grab the back of her neck and smile at him.

Patrick and Rei ran together, hand in hand, out the little alley and all the way down the boulevard. Patrick had no idea how long they ran like that or where they were even going, just as long as he could get the two of them away from the prying eyes of the others. He couldn't bear to see Rei so embarrassed in any case.

Finally they ran out of street and ended up on an old wooden dock that stretched out into Lake Ashi. With nowhere left to run and no sign of the pursuers, they finally stopped at the dock, where they both bent over and panted for breath. Rei got her composure, released herself from Patrick, and walked over the edge of the dock. She just stood there, closed her eyes, and let her hands catch the strong breeze. Patrick watched her as the wind gently blew her hair, and saw the most peaceful look on her face. He thought to go to her, but something held him back.

After a few minutes, she turned from the dock and looked at him. He walked over to where she was.

"Forrestal?" There was little emotion in her voice. She was back to her old self.

"Yes?"

"Is this what everyone else does?" she asked.

Patrick at first wondered what she meant. "Does? You mean the dating? Well, yes, but actually most people don't really do it very well."

"I understand. Please take me home now."

"But..." Patrick protested.

"My stomach hurts."

"Oh, sorry." _And so ends the date._ "I'll take you home, then."

Toji summed it up. "Well, that was a disaster."

Misato, who had picked up Rei's blue rose off the table, had a more positive attitude. "Good thing I had my NERV expense account. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to shut up that manager right away. By the way, where did our lovebirds go?"

"No idea." Kensuke said. "Anyway, please excuse me as I'm going to try and fix my baby here and get her back and flying." He cradled his broken camera plane like a newfound puppy. "See you later!"

"I think I'll go too," said Hikari. "I need to start on dinner for my sisters."

"Okay, see you tomorrow, Class Rep.," replied Toji.

"Oh, no. Not you!" Hikari said. "You're coming with me!"

"What?"

Hikari was firm. "I have a lot of groceries to buy, and I need some help carrying them."

"No way! I'm going to go shoot some hoops." Toji turned around to walk away, but Hikari quickly reached up and grabbed his ear. "OW OW OW OW OW!!!" She dragged him in the opposite direction down the boulevard.

"See you all tomorrow!" she called out, still dragging a protesting Suzahara with her.

"Well, such a waste of an afternoon," sighed Asuka. "Come on. Shinji! Let's go home."

"Hey, wait a minute?" Vance said to her. "Don't you want a rematch?"

She sneered at him. "With you? You have got to be kidding!"

"Hey, fair play this time," he said.

Asuka turned her head. "No way, pal! We don't fraternize with the enemy here."

"So then I can just best your high score on Mega Mecha then?" Asuka gave him a blank stare, but Vance continued. "I saw your initials on the screen there yesterday. 11,235,000 is pretty impressive, but just shy of my personal best, and I'm feeling pretty lucky today."

She thought it over for a moment. "Over my dead body."

"Suit yourself," said Vance.

"Fine then. Catch you later Shinji!" Asuka turned go with Vance, who looked very pleased.

"Bye, you guys!" he said "Thanks for everything!"

"But, Asuka?" Shinji called out to her, but she was walking down the street with the American pilot, bickering the entire way. He felt a tug at his arm.

"So, it seems I have you to myself then!" Misato smiled at him.

"Eh?"

She lowered her sunglasses. "Let's go on a shopping date! I need some new clothes."

"But, Misato?"

"I won't hear it! _DATE-O, DATE-O!" _ Misato affectionately wrapped her arm again around Shinji. "The least I can do is spend the rest of the day with some handsome boy. Come on!"

Shinji just sighed as they walked together down the boulevard for while. Then he saw the rose Misato was now holding. "Misato-san?"

"Hmm?" she purred.

"What was the meaning of the flower?"

She showed him the rose. "According to ancient legend, the blue rose signifies hope against unattainable love."

"Really?"

"Uh-uh." She looked at the rose herself. "It doesn't occur naturally. In old times they used to dye them blue. Nowadays, they genetically modify them. This rose is manmade." Misato smiled at him. "I just wonder if he knew the meaning."

"I see," Shinji said, and they just kept on walking.

Patrick sat on the chair in Rei's apartment, waiting for her to finish. She had already changed out of her "uniform" and was wearing an oversized shirt and bath slippers. Patrick watched her as she carefully cleaned herself at the kitchen sink.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I am fine now." She didn't turn to face him but continued washing her hands.

"I'm really sorry. I should have considered you might have gotten sick."

"Forrestal?"

"Yes?"

"What do you want with me?"

He stood up from the chair. "Just to be with you. Nothing more."

Rei stopped washing but still didn't turn around to face him. "I think that I understand now, but I cannot be who you want me to be."

Patrick started to move slowly towards her. "Why?" Then for a moment he thought about the video he saw, of the yellow Unit 00 standing in front of Shinji's Unit 01 and taking the hit for him from the Fifth Angel's energy beam. _Oh, no,_ he realized. _Maybe I just got in the way of something else here._

"It's Ikari, isn't it? He's the one you…like."

She didn't answer his question but in a low, sad voice, she said "I am not meant for anyone."

Patrick reached the sink and gently clutched her shoulders, turning her toward him. He said softly to her, "Rei, what do _you_ want?"

Rei was silent, her head bowed low as she avoided eye contact with him. In her short life no one had ever asked her that question before.

She lifted her head and looked up at Patrick. She had started to tremble. Her red eyes met his, and her face had on it the look of a lost child.

"I do not know."

They stared at each other for what seemed to Patrick like an eternity. He looked at her lonely face and thought to himself_ her defenses are down…I might never get another chance…_

Patrick bent down to kiss her. She closed her eyes and allowed him to get close to her, but just before he reached her lips she turned her head away.

"I am sorry. I cannot."

They both just stood there for a good, long while. Then Patrick released her shoulders, and turned away. Softly he said "I'll leave you alone."

He quietly exited the apartment through the front door. Rei stood motionless as he left.


	11. Chapter 10: Betrayal

CHAPTER TEN

Patrick sullenly walked back to his own apartment. He didn't take the train back, but just walked by himself through the darkening streets of Tokyo-3, running back the memories of the day in his head over and over again. _So close and yet so far away_...Had he done the wrong thing? Or maybe this was an impossible challenge to begin with?

Finally in the early evening he had reached their apartment in the NERV officer's quarters. As he reached their floor he could see Vance in the distance, probably back from another one of Asuka's video game challenges. Standing there talking to Vance was Mr. Kaji. He couldn't make out what they were speaking about, but Kaji seemed upset at Vance. _What could that be about?_ He hid around a corner and spied on both of them.

"What ARE you two up to?" Kaji asked the pilot.

Vance gave Kaji a wide, knowing smile. "What ever do you mean, Mr. Kaji?"

"I mean what the hell is this?" Kaji showed Vance the syringe with the liquid obtained earlier from their apartment.

"You broke into our place!"

"Right now that's the least of your troubles. Do you know what this stuff is?"

Vance didn't immediately reply, but turned his head away and thought for a bit. Then he looked directly at him. _The game is up, I guess_. "Mr., Kaji, do you have any idea what they're really doing in the basement here?"

"As a matter of fact," replied Kaji, "I happen to have an excellent idea. I take it you know about Terminal Dogma."

"What I know about is Instrumentality."

Kaji raised an eyebrow. _He knows about THAT_. "What are you aiming to do?"

Vance paused for a moment, and then he said "we're aiming to stop it!"

"How?"

The teenager said nothing.

Kaji moved closer to him. "That stuff you take is going to literally eat your brain!"

Vance met his gaze directly. "What happens to me is not important."

"What about Patrick?"

"He's not part of this. He's just a regular kid who got pulled in."

Kaji took a step back. "Vance, there are a lot of things here bigger than you or me. If you are going to do something rash, the consequences of what you do may be bigger than anyone can control."

Vance turned around and started to walk away from him. "Mr. Kaji, dad told me that you're not just working for NERV. Look, whatever you do, if you know what's good for you just stay out of my way."

"Vance?" Kaji called after him, but Vance just kept walking back to his apartment. Patrick saw him coming and quickly went back around the corner and quietly entered the apartment. From the apartment doorway he could still hear their conversation.

"Vance, you don't have to do it this way," Kaji said, almost pleading,

Vance stopped for a bit, but still didn't face the Japanese agent.

"It's too late already, Mr. Kaji," he said softly. He then walked around the corner. Kaji didn't follow him.

When Vance opened the door Patrick was waiting inside.

"Everything OK, dude?"

"Yeah, everything's fine!" Vance, however, was holding his head again. It felt so very painful this time.

_Vance doesn't look too well, _Patrick thought._ I wonder what that was all about._ "What did Mr. Kaji want?"

Vance reached for a water bottle in the fridge. "He just has some issues to work out, it's cool. Anyway, I'm really tired. Hey, how did it go afterwards?"

"You mean with Rei?" Patrick sighed. "She kind of got sick and I had to take her back home."

"That sucks. Well, anyway I feel like shit too so I'm going to get a shower. "

Patrick turned to Vance just as he was leaving the living room. "Hey, Double-V?"

"Yeah?"

"What was Erin like?"

Vance raised an eyebrow. "What brought this on?"

"I don't know," said Patrick. "Suddenly I just thought about her. I never saw her when she was...normal."

Vance took a deep breath and then sat on the top edge of the couch. To Patrick he suddenly looked very tired and his face was pale. "Your sister Erin was a very sweet and active girl who was also a very determined pilot. She always had excellent sync ratios, better than anything I could manage. She did really well with the EVA most of the time. She always seemed a little sad though."

"I see."

Vance turned to face Patrick. "She thought about you."

"How? I thought I was a big secret?"

"You were," Vance continued. "But she would tell me about this 'mysterious boyfriend' who lived in the mountains in her dreams. I'd always joke that she read too many teen romances. But then you came along and then I knew who she meant."

"I wish I had known her," Patrick said mournfully.

"Yeah, she was pretty special." They both were silent for a while.

"Sometimes I really hate EVA you know," said Patrick.

Vance sat up and headed for the shower. "The EVA is just a tool used to accomplish the salvation of humanity."

"And we're just tools, too."

_The following morning…_

MONDAY

The controllers in Central Dogma were busily reviewing the flight status of all five Evangelion units and the outdoor training range as the EVAs were lifted by elevators onto the top level of the GeoFront. Preparations were being checked and double-checked for the next joint exercise between the American and Japanese branches of NERV. Misato was supervising the controllers as before, while observing upstairs in the commander's platform were NERV commander Gendo Ikari and vice-commander Futsuyuki.

"Firing Range is being brought on-line," reported Aoba.

Hyuga was monitoring the Evangelions themselves. "All EVAs are activated and moving towards range."

Misato addressed video feeds of all five EVA pilots. "Attention all pilots: today is a live-fire exercise. Each of your weapons is armed with live rounds, so please pay attention to all safety protocols. Absolutely no unauthorized firing!"

All pilots answered but their attitudes were somewhat subdued from the last round. "Yes Ma'am."

"Oh what's the matter?" asked Misato with a cute voice. "Too much fun yesterday?"

Commander Ikari interrupted her. "Major Katsuragi, please be sure your EVAs are moved over to the firing range within the next few minutes as we will be transferring the S2 Engine to Germany on Airfield One."

"Yes, Commander. Maya?"

"Yes, Major?"

"Where's Dr. Akagi?" Ritsuko was not in the control room, not like her at all for a major event such as this.

"She was still working on the American EVA evaluation," Maya replied. "I don't know when she's coming back."

Shinji had been out late the night before with Misato and didn't see Asuka return to their apartment. She had gone alone earlier to NERV that morning.

"Asuka? How was the arcade?" he asked her, trying to be as friendly as possible.

"Don't talk to me!"

Misato couldn't help her curiosity, as she addressed the pilot of Unit 00. "Rei, your vital signs are 20% lower than your average. Are you alright?"

"Yes, Major," Rei replied in her usual monotone voice.

"What about yesterday?" The chatter in Central Dogma suddenly went quiet as Misato asked the question.

Rei replied without emotion, "Yesterday was fine, ma'am."

Misato looked around and saw the three controllers look at each other, and then glace quickly at Misato before quickly turning back to their work. _Don't tell me they knew about the date too?_

The dour attitude didn't escape Shinji's notice either, as no one was in the mood for the usual pre-fight banter. _Seems like nearly everyone had a bad day yesterday._

Vance opened a private communication screen to Unit 04. "Patrick?"

"Yeah, Double-V?"

"We're good buddies right?"

"Yeah, I guess so..." _What the heck?_

"Right. So whatever happens next I just want you to stay the hell out of the way, do you understand?" Vance was unusually serious.

Patrick tried to laugh it off. "Dude, you're scaring me here!"

Vance was now angry. "Just stay back, for your own sake!" and then he closed the channel.

Patrick thought to himself._ That's not like him at all! What's going on?_

Vance heard Misato call over the speakers in his EVA plug. "All EVAs now move to Firing Range."

Rei's EVA-00 was the first to reach the surface, and it began to slowly move to the training range. Vance's EVA-03 and Patrick's -04 were on the next elevator, which had just reached the top, while Units 01 and 02 were still on the way upward.

Once reaching the surface Vance looked on his monitors and could see the outside of the GeoFront. The live-fire exercise was in an open area several kilometers from the GeoFront's outdoor opening, in a cordoned-off area. Right next to the exercise area was a large airfield where he could see a UN transport aircraft on the tarmac with several ground crew personnel carefully moving a large object draped in an unmarked black tarp. _It's right over there, on the airfield._ He looked at the clock: it said 08:29. It was almost time. His Evangelion started to walk very casually towards the airfield.

Suddenly, nearly the entire airfield lit up in a wall of flame.

In Central Dogma alarm klaxons sounded as the controllers analyzed what had just happened.

"Commander, multiple explosions within our defense ring!!" Hyuga announced.

"Is it an Angel attack?" asked Futsuyuki.

"Negative, sir. A number of missiles have penetrated the perimeter. Sensors arrays indicate stealth aircraft have entered our airspace."

Aoba had more information. "Aircraft have UN markings but have shut off their IFF tags."

"Sir, Air Defense reports aircraft are American-type, sir!" added Lt Hyuga.

Commander Ikari folded his hands and looked at the large tactical holographic display. _This is bad._ "Bring all defense systems to maximum alert. Engage all hostile all aircraft."

Maya jumped up and pointed to one of the monitors. "Sir, the S2 Engine!"

One of the large video screens showed the wreckage of the UN air transport on the airfield. The ground crew around the engine had disappeared, presumably dead or forced off by the explosions, but the black-shrouded object remained on the tarmac.

The commander called down to the operations pit. "Major, who is closest to the S2 engine?"

"I can have EVA-00 there in one minute, sir."

"Do it! "

Misato turned to the video feed for Unit 00. "Rei, get to the S2 engine on the runway. There may be an attempt to destroy or capture it."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Commander Ikari addressed the screen himself. "Rei."

"Yes, Commander?"

"Defend it with your life!" he ordered.

"Yes, sir."

Misato called out to the other pilots. "All other EVAs report!"

"EVA-01 here!"

"I'm here!" Asuka chimed in.

"EVA-04 ready!" Patrick also replied in.

There were only three answers. "Unit 03?" asked Misato.

No response on the audio. Misato looked at the Unit 03 video screen, which had suddenly been shut off.

"Patrick, Where's Vance?"

"No Idea, Major." _Oh no, Vance, what the hell are you doing?_

At that moment, Dr. Akagi ran into the operations pit at Central Dogma. "I know how he's spoofing the EVA! Major, shut down EVAs 03 and 04 now!"

Misato nodded and addressed the controllers. "Shut all power to EVA 03 and 04!"

"Powering down on EVA-04,"replied Hyuga.

Maya attempted the same for Unit 03, but was unable to get the Evangelion to comply. "EVA-03 is non-responsive!"

Misato called out to Unit 03. "Vance, shut down now!" There was still no response, and the video screen was still dead. She turned to Maya. "Where's Unit 03 now?"

"Moving fast towards the runway. Major, he's disconnected the command link!"

"Telemetry Failed!" Hyuga shouted. "He's hijacked the Evangelion!"

"WHAT!!!!"

In the entry plug for Unit 04, most of the video screens went dead and the lights went down to the emergency red tint. Patrick looked at his power meter - it was flashing: CONROL-OVERRIDE - POWER CUTOFF.

"Oh, no!!!" He shouted into the audio feed. "Don't shut me down now!!! Please!!!"

Evangelion Unit 00 reached the smoking wreckage of the UN transport on Airfield One. There were no signs of life but the black-wrapped S2 engine was still lying on its transport pallet, its tie-down cables snapped off by the force of the explosions.

"I've reached the S2 engine now." Rei reported back to Central Dogma.

"Rei, hold onto it." Misato ordered. "Whatever happens, don't let EVA-03 get it. Use your AT field."

"No, don't!" Ritsuko warned. Misato turned to her. "Why not?"

"The AT field might exhibit field interference with the S2 engine and could cause a stress reaction."

"Such as?" Misato asked.

"In general terms…" Ritsuko then motioned the shape of a large explosion out of her hands. Misato understood the meaning. "Rei, be careful!" she called out.

Unit 03 ran out of the smoke of the explosions and was 1,000 meters away from the transport plane. _There you are._ Vance then saw Unit 00 on his monitor cradling the black-draped artifact under one arm. _Oh, no, Patrick's not going to like this. It can't be helped_. He then drew his progressive knife and his pistol and ran at Unit 00.

On the tactical display Misato watched Unit 03 charge at Rei and the S2 on the tarmac. "Rei, he's heading right towards you. Hang on!" She turned to the other video feeds. "Shinji, Asuka! Go help Rei now!"

Shinji was clueless. "What's happening, Major!"

"EVA-03 and 04 are now classified as enemy targets. Use all force necessary to stop them!"

"What?" said Asuka in disbelief. "You're kidding?"

"NOW!!!" Misato screamed.

Inside EVA-04, Patrick shook the control actuators but he couldn't stop the shut down process. "No, No, come on, what is happening!!!" Though the main power was cutoff to his EVA, the entry plug still had an auxiliary battery and he was able to see the video feed from the outside. There he had a front-row seat, watching Unit 03 charging at Rei's EVA. "Vance, what the hell are you doing?"

Ritsuko address the blank screen that was supposed to feed to EVA-03. "Mr. Vinson, this is Dr. Akagi. If you want to live past the next five minutes stop what you're doing now! The serum you are using has a total fatality rate."

"Ritsuko, what's going on?" asked Misato.

"It seems our American pilot here has been cheating," Ritsuko explained. "He's using a neural control serum to interface with the EVA using part of EVA-03's own DNA structure. "

_Which means this guy is really desperate_, Misato thought. "Oh my God! Rei!"

As EVAs-01 and 02 reached the top of the elevator shaft, Vance was already at the wreckage of the transport aircraft. He could see and hear around him the air battle between the NERV defense forces and his renegade allies. Up in the sky he could see a larger, modified assault transport circling the airfield. _That's my ticket home, if I live to get home, that is._ NERV's air defenses were already starting to work over the opposing aircraft, so to pull this off he knew he had to work fast.

On the tarmac was EVA-00 holding the black-draped organ under its left arm and its pallet gun on its right hand. Vance moved cautiously toward it and spoke on the loudspeaker. He knew he was close enough for the pilot to hear him.

"Now, Rei, be a good girl and give it up," he said calmly.

Rei said nothing, but tightened the grip around the S2 instead. She brought up her gun to fire but the knife in Unit 03's left hand quickly slashed the barrel in half before she could bring it to bear. The black Evangelion proceeded to kick Unit 00 off its feet and onto the runway. Rei screamed but still held onto the S2, grabbing onto it with both hands.

Moving at full speed EVAs 01 and 02 ran to the airfield. "Ayanami!" Shinji shouted. "We're coming! Hang on!"

"Shinji, I'm going to take the shot!" Asuka told him.

"No way!" Shinji protested. "You might hit her instead of him!"

Patrick had never felt so helpless, as he watched his best friend attack the only girl he ever liked. "No, no, Vance, NO!!!! REI! REI!" He kept shouting and trying to shake the actuators in the entry plug, but there was no getting the power back. As he watched EVA-03 move onto the kill, he suddenly remembered something. _Maybe_…

He released his tight grip on the actuators and closed his eyes, concentrating as hard as he could.

_Please do something! She's going to die if I can't save her! Please, please, please…_

EVA-00 was on its knees on the runway, but still shielding the S2 with its arms, as EVA-03 closed in on it. It stopped for a moment, as Vance took a syringe and pumped it directly through his plug suit into his thigh.

EVA-03 then took its pistol and positioned it point blank at EVA-00's core. Vance had noticed that Rei didn't activate the AT Field, which meant that at this range, one shot would blow open the core and the entry plug, almost surely killing the pilot. "Sorry it had to come to this, girl!" Unit 03 pulled the hammer back on the pistol.

Then suddenly, something impacted Unit 03's head, and the Evangelion fell backwards.

Misato and the others were watching all of this from the control platform. She saw EVA-03 collapse and knew it was the lucky break they needed. "Shinji, Hurry!"

EVA-01 had reached where both Unit 03 and 00 were. Unit 00 was still kneeling on the runway, while Unit 03 was sprawled on its back ten meters away, dripping in LCL from an open wound on its head. Shinji took EVA-01 and quickly pulled EVA-00 to its feet, its arms still clutching the S2. As EVA-03 got back on its feet, Asuka's EVA-02 arrived at the scene.

"Your ass is mine!" she called to Vance.

"It's been fun, but no more time for games," he replied.

EVA-03 pivoted around and shot its pistol at EVA-00. The impact of the pistol was loud, and LCL began to spray out of the abdomen. Rei screamed "Ikari-kun!!!"

"Pay you back!!" Shinji had moved EVA-01 directly in front of EVA-00 before Vance took his shot: it was EVA-01 that was bleeding out orange LCL, as it fell to the ground.

"No way you're gonna kill my friends!" Asuka shouted. As EVA-03 turned to face her, she grabbed her Prog Knife and went after the black Evangelion, pushing it into a burning aircraft hanger with the stock of her pallet gun on her left hand. EVA-03 fell back into the building.

Vance pumped another syringe into his thigh as he felt his heart race and his breathing was very heavy. He tasted salt and syrup and reached up to his head and found his hair was sticky. His head felt thick as ice.

_Oh, no._

He heard Dr. Akagi voice's again through the open audio channel. "Mr. Vinson, stop immediately. The serum will kill you if you don't stop now! Vance, we can treat you if you stop right now."

_Can't let them get me. _

Unit 03 ran behind billowing smoke as Asuka in Unit 02 sprayed the area with gunfire. "I AM NOT GOING TO LET YOU DO THIS, YOU BASTARD!!!"

"Asuka! Back away now!" Misato warned. "He may try to self-destruct!"

Asuka ignored the warning. "NO DAMN WAY YOU WIN THIS!" she shouted. EVA-02 ran through the smoke and flame and found a struggling Unit 03 trying to bring its pistol to bear on her. She used her gun again to knock the pistol of out its hand while thrusting with the Prog Knife in the other. Her attack was aggressive enough to push EVA-03 back against the hanger wall.

"TO THINK THAT I ACTUALLY _RESPECTED_ YOU!!!" She repeatedly stabbed EVA-03 in the chest until it collapsed on the tarmac. It wasn't moving anymore, and LCL and tissue were spilling out and onto the runway.

Vance could no longer move his hands or legs, as the entry plug was lit up with all manner of warning lights and sounds. He felt the syrup of blood go down the side of his face as his vision started to go black.

_Sorry, Patrick. Sorry for Everything. You were a good kid. They should have just left you alone._

He felt very tired, and began to feel himself drift. As his view of the entry plug started to grow dim, Vance looked at the front of his throne console. Taped to the top edge of the display was a small photograph, the kind that comes from a photo booth. In the photograph, Vance looked surprised as a 14-year old girl with collar-length blonde hair gently kissed him on the cheek. His last thoughts were of her. _Erin_…

Then something popped in his head, and it was over.

"Asuka! Back off now!" Asuka finally did as she was ordered and moved Unit 02 back a few steps, weapons still at the ready. EVA-02 stood silently over EVA-03 as LCL leaking from the Evangelion flooded the runway.

In Central Dogma, the controllers ran a remote scan on Unit 03.

"No pilot activity readings for EVA-03," Maya said solemnly. The meaning was clear.

"Sir, Defense reports surrounding area is secure," reported Hyuga. The renegade air threat had been defeated as well.

Aoba turned to face the command platform above. "Sir, a message from NERV-2's commander."

"Yes?" Gendo Ikari asked. He had not moved from his seat the entire time.

"He says he's received information that a rogue element of their organization was found plotting to hijack one of the Evangelion units," Aoba reported. "He says that we should exercise extreme caution and shut down both units until they can investigate the threat."

Futsuyuki turned to Ikari. "How very conveniently timed."

Gendo scoffed. "Tell him it's too late, but we have the situation in hand."

Patrick, inside of EVA-04, had seen everything, but he couldn't believe what just transpired. He continued to watch the video monitor, watching Unit 00 supporting Unit 01 with one hand and the S2 with another, as rescue crews rushed to the scene.

"Rei, thank God she's safe."

He saw the silent figure of EVA-03 sitting motionless against the aircraft hanger, with Unit 02 standing at the ready above it. _What the hell happened just now? Vance!? Vance!! Why?!_

Suddenly he found it incredibly hard to breathe, as the LCL pressure in the entry plug increased dramatically. Struggling to leave the seat, everything went deep red before he lost consciousness.


	12. Chapter 11: Revelations

CHAPTER ELEVEN

TUESDAY

_Where am I?_

Patrick woke up in a dark room. He was sitting with his head lying on a table. The young pilot had been taken out of his plug suit and was now dressed in regular clothes. As soon as he woke up, two men dressed in black suits and sunglasses focused a bright light directly into his face and started to interrogate him.

"What were you planning on doing?" one of the men asked him,

"I wasn't planning on anything," Patrick answered. "Where's Vance?"

"What was your partner doing?"

"I have no idea. He just told me to stay out of the way. Where's Vance?"

"And you didn't warn your controllers?" the other man demanded.

"He was acting weird, really!" Patrick replied. "Where is he? Damn it where is he?"

"Your partner is dead," said the first man.

_What the hell?_ "Dead? How?"

"Apparently he died piloting the EVA. "

"Oh my God!" Patrick went into shock, but the interrogator continued. "Were you using a Control Serum?" The first man demanded, while the second walked behind him.

"What?"

"WERE YOU USING A CONTROL SERUM? ANSWER ME!!" One of them then held his arms back, while the other agent slapped Patrick hard in the face.

"I don't even know what that is!!!!"

From outside, Misato and Ritsuko Akagi watched the interrogation on a monitor fed from a hidden camera in the room. The monitor was labeled NERV DEPT 2 INTERROGATION ROOM ONE. Misato looked very concerned. "I don't think he knows anything."

"Still," Ritsuko answered. "He'd have to notice something was going on, you would think."

"How did you figure out what Vinson was doing?" Misato asked.

"I had figured that maybe the early parts of the project might have used something like this," said Ritsuko. "So I went back into my Mother's research. I was able to determine, from her and the analysis that the MAGI did, that a neural control serum was the most probable method, but the composition of the serum he was using was the last piece of the puzzle."

"How did you figure that out?"

Ritsuko smiled at her. "Actually, a stray dog came by and managed to fetch some for me." She held up a syringe filled with orange liquid.

Misato knew that particular mutt. "Stray dog, huh?"

At the entrance of the GeoFront, Asuka and Shinji slid their identity cards and entered the security gates. They were still both in shock from yesterday's adventure.

"I can't believe they were both spies!" Shinji told Asuka in disbelief. "They seemed so cool!"

"I knew he was too good to be true!" she angrily replied as she followed him through the gate. "You can't trust anyone these days."

"I wonder how Ayanami is taking it?" Shinji asked.

"Don't make me sick!" Asuka groaned.

Elsewhere in the GeoFront, Rei walked down a corridor into Commander Ikari's office. She wore her school uniform and was carrying her Viola case with her. In the commander's office, Gendo Ikari sat at his desk, hands folded in front of his face, while a fat American man dressed in an older-style business suit pleaded his case to him. She watched the discussion from across the room. The American was very nervous, sweating from his brow as he spoke.

"As you can see, this was a rouge element of dissenting American officers. They've always hated the UN and this was their way of retaliation."

"Commander Stennis," Ikari replied, "this pilot of theirs was able use this serum without anyone on your staff noticing? I find that very difficult to believe."

The American director took a handkerchief and dabbed his forehead. "Unfortunately Commander Ikari that is the way it is. Please believe me! We are completely loyal to the UN and to the Committee. If we were aware of any type of plot earlier we would have put a stop to it immediately!"

"You will have to answer to the Committee on this matter in any case," said the Commander. "I doubt if they're going to trust you with anything from this point further."

"Please, Commander Ikari!" the American's voice was desperate, but Commander Ikari was already distracted by someone else in the room.

"Ah, Rei," he said warmly, as he stood up and walked over to where she was standing. "Are you going to your lesson?"

"Yes, sir." Her voice was devoid of emotion.

He smiled at her. "I hope you're feeling okay after yesterday. You gave us quite a scare."

"I am fine, sir."

"Good. I will attend as soon as I am able. Please go on ahead."

"Yes, Commander."

Ritsuko walked back to her lab to study the reports on the damage to EVA-03. Fortunately Asuka's melee attacks didn't permanently damage the unit and it was being quickly prepared for shipment back to the NERV-1 branch in Massachusetts for repairs. EVA-04 was already packed for transport to NERV-2 in Nevada. As she sat at her computer an older man's voice was heard through the door.

"Dr. Akagi!"

She turned around and saw a man in his fifties dressed in a white suit with rim glasses, his silver beard trimmed in a neat goatee. He looked nothing like a double-Nobel winning physicist.

"Dr. Forrestal," she said cynically. "What an unexpected pleasure!"

He warmly smiled at her. "I'm here to get my boy. I do have to apologize for the mess here; we had no idea what these people were up to until yesterday." Dr. Harrison Forrestal, scientific and technical chief of NERV-2, walked into her office.

Ritsuko waited until the door closed to make her statement. "Do you fully expect me to believe that crap?"

He kept smiling at her, but it was strained. "I shouldn't expect you to take such a tone with me."

She looked right at him. "We both know perfectly well that only someone with extensive experience with both neural control systems and genetics could concoct such a thing as that serum. "

The smile was now gone, and Dr. Forrestal waived a finger at her. "I wouldn't go around making big accusations if I were you. We were both taken advantage of. At least we had a handle on the bigger plot."

"Which was?"

"The destruction of NERV in Japan," he continued. "That was the ultimate goal, anyway. Take the angel's S2 and combine it with an Evangelion and you get a completely invincible weapon. Fortunately quick thinking by your own pilots averted a complete tragedy."

Ritsuko walked right up to his face and looked him in the eye. "There is no possible way you were not involved!"

He turned away from her, and looked around her office. "I'm not going to deal with this right now. Besides, don't think that no one else out there knows what you're _really_ hiding at the bottom of this place, Dr. Akagi. I don't think the Committee would be very happy knowing about all of the research you're doing here, would they?"

She smiled and folded her arms. "I dare them to find out. Besides, I don't fry kids' brains out."

He turned back and looked directly at her. "Oh no, you just use them as puppets instead! Now where's my boy?"

Patrick was moved to some sort of a holding cell and dumped there. His whole body ached and screamed with fatigue. Patrick just lay on the floor.

_Oh my God, I don't ever think I've ever felt so much pain. Vance, what the hell did you try to do?_

He was too sore to move and he had lost track of time. Was he there for hours? Days? He couldn't tell. The light was dim, and there were no features in the cell save a large red NERV logo. But somewhere at the edge of the wall he thought he could make out someone's shadow.

"Huh, who's there?" He moaned. As soon as he spoke the shadow disappeared.

His voice was barely a whisper. "Rei? Is that you?" The door of the cell then opened, and a silhouette appeared in the doorway.

"Patrick!"

He knew the voice. "Father!" he said weakly.

"Let's go home."

Dr. Forrestal walked his dejected son down the corridors within the NERV complex, while the Japanese staff pretended not to notice them, or gave them glaring stares. They both got on the long escalator going to the surface. On their way up the escalator, Patrick could see Shinji and Asuka, in their school uniforms, along with Major Katsuragi, standing on the downward escalator. Ashamed, Patrick turned his face away, but Dr. Forrestal placed his arm around Patrick's shoulder and smiled broadly at the three of them. Asuka shot the pair a dirty look, but Shinji and Misato both just sadly looked at them as they passed each other. As the two Americans continued upward, Misato turned her head and watched both of them leave. She couldn't help but have the worst sort of foreboding about the boy.

Several hours later, the Forrestals were on a hypersonic transport aircraft on the way back to America. They both sat alone in the passenger cabin: there were no other passengers on the flight. After about 30 minutes into the flight Patrick mounted up his courage. He looked at the seat in front of him and then at his father, who still had a broken smile on his face. Neither of them made eye contact with the other.

"Father?"

"Yes?"

"What really happened to Mom, and Erin? "

Dr. Forrestal took a deep breath. "Those bastards we just left: they killed them. They killed them both."

"But Erin's not dead!"

"She might as well be. Poor girl. Destroyed by that thing. The Evangelion."

"Father," Patrick continued. "Why didn't you tell me? Why keep me away for so long?"

"It was your mother's request," Dr. Forrestal said. "She was concerned abut the risks of the project so we kept you secret, a sort of insurance policy. Your sister was the pilot candidate; we never told the UN or the Committee that we had twins."

"So when Erin freaked out…"

"We had an excuse to bring you in. They couldn't stop us now as the project was far too along."

"But what about Mom?" Patrick asked.

The scientist sighed. "Your mother was a believer in the benefits of the project, but was concerned about the risks to the potential pilots. When the Japanese research lab had their 'catastrophe' early in the project she sought to replicate the test but with a better result. Unfortunately GEHIRN, who was running the project at the time, withheld critical information: she died. You were 4 as I recall."

"So, this GEHIRN killed Mother"

"Actually it was one of their project leaders that withheld the information we needed. You know who he is actually."

"How would I know?"

Dr. Forrestal calmly took a drink from his teacup. "His son is one of the pilots at NERV."

"Shinji? You mean Commander Ikari."

"I do." The smile was gone now. "And now he has something else up his sleeve. He plays nice with the Committee but he's planning something..."

"But Father, they all seemed liked good people."

"Those children are just being used!" Dr. Forrestal exclaimed. "One of them, the

First."

"Rei?"

"What do you think she is?" he asked Patrick.

_What do you mean by what? Not who?_ "I don't know."

"She's not even a real human!" Dr. Forrestal turned and looked at his son, leaning closer as he spoke to him. "She's a clone of Commander Ikari's wife!"

"What?!"

There was silence for a while as Patrick tried to absorb everything he just heard. He took a deep breath and dug into his soul for strength for what he was about to ask next.

"Father?"

"Yes?"

"Did you know about Vance?"

"Of course I did. I'm the one who sent him."

"But he died?"

"He died for what he thought he believed in," said the scientist. His father set it up, actually. Admiral Vinson and the others thought they were stopping the Committee and their master plan for Instrumentality, a perfect 'end-state' for humanity. "

"But I take it that wasn't what you're planning," Patrick replied.

"No. Those fools thought they could take on the whole UN in some sort of pointless exercise. Typical military idiocy."

Patrick was now angry. "So you just used Vance and the others then? You sent them on this suicide mission and then sold them out!"

Dr. Forrestal raised his own voice. "Don't you get it, boy? It's all coming to an end!" He then turned away and muttered to himself, "The world doesn't deserve to live on."

Patrick spoke softly "Father."

"What!?"

"I won't pilot the EVA again."

"You'll do as I tell you!" His father was angry but Patrick continued to speak softly. "There's no way you can make me do it."

"We'll see about that."

Once back in Nevada, they both walked off the aircraft. Waiting below the ramp were several security guards who then took Patrick away. He didn't resist them, but turned his head and looked angrily at his father as they lead him off. Dr. Forrestal just watched as the men took his son.

_So much for that. Now I have to go beg to those fools._

Dr. Forrestal went to his office and called his aide, asking for no interruptions - no exceptions. Then he dialed a series of numbers on a separate phone-looking device on his desk. He dimmed the lights in his office and waited for the others to appear. Within two minutes the holographic images of five monolithic blocks appeared, each having the letters SEELE and a number on the block. The block labeled 01 spoke first.

"Dr. Forrestal. Congratulations on your appointment as the new commander of NERV-2"

Dr. Forrestal spoke directly to the "virtual" being in his office. He was spiteful. "Commander Stennis was a sleazy politician whose only benefit was plundering his friends in Congress for funds for this project. His presence won't be missed."

SEELE 01 cut immediately to the chase. "Is it true that you had no knowledge of the plot that was being formed within your own organization?"

"Unfortunately, no," Forrestal replied. "However, it's well known that the US military didn't take the lessening of sovereignty to the UN after Second Impact very well. It doesn't at all surprise me that they would steal my research and attempt a plot such as this."

SEELE 01 continued. "You, however, needed to be more careful about the activities within NERV-2. "

The scientist looked at the monolith in this office. "NERV-2 performs an essential backup role to the Japan-based NERV. Should a sudden catastrophic attack wipe out NERV and their EVAs, we would be the planet's only line of defense against Angel attacks. "

"All of this is true," said the monolith's voice, "But that is not your only value."

Dr. Forrestal smiled. "No, it's not. I've collected information regarding something that Ikari is working on. Something I think the committee would be very interested in."

Another monolith block chimed in. "By all means, let us see it!" A third voice exclaimed "Yes! I knew Ikari was two-faced!"

Then SEELE 01 spoke again. "I assume that by not already offering this information you have a request for this committee in mind."

_Here it comes._ "I do. I want the S2 engine."

The virtual committee Dr. Forrestal was addressing was incredulous. "But it was one of your pilots who tried to steal it!?" Another voice called out. "Unacceptable! NERV-2 has already proven it can't be trusted!"

"If you want a way to control or eliminate Ikari, I am your only option," Forrestal replied coolly. "Give me the S2 and I will merge it with one of the Evangelions we have. Following that, NERV will not be able to withstand our power. Provide me the S2 engine and, after I test it, I will give you everything I have on Ikari."

There was a moment of silence, and then SEELE 01 spoke again. "I will honor your request. But get your pilot under your control."

Forrestal smiled. "With some assistance recently provided from your labs, I no longer require the pilot at this time. He will be retained as a backup."

SEELE01 finished the discussion. "You may proceed. Ikari will fully regret he chose to betray us." Then the monoliths vanished from the office.

Harrison Forrestal stood there in his office and pursed his lips against his hands. _Now I finish this on my own terms._


	13. Chapter 12: A Fighting Chance

CHAPTER TWELVE

_Two weeks later…_

In Commander Ikari's office it was Aoba who broke the news. Vice Commander Futsuyuki held the phone as the commander silently listened from his desk.

"It vanished?! You're sure the 2nd Branch just vanished?!" he asked.

"Yes, sir," said Aoba. "It's been confirmed. It vanished!"

In the operations analysis room adjacent to Central Dogma, Misato, Dr. Akagi, and the controller staff looked at the large floor monitor as the words "VANISHED" flashed across it. Misato rubbed her head "Oh, man!"

Hyuga was reporting the reaction by NERV to the catastrophe in Nevada. "The Administration and Investigation departments are going crazy, and Public Affairs is in a total panic!"

Misato then turned to Ritsuko. "So what was the cause?"

"We still don't know," the scientist replied.

The monitor changed to an image of the remainder of the Nevada facility. It and the surrounding area was completely gone, even the mountains and valleys had disappeared, leaving nothing but a gigantic crater. Ritsuko went on. "Our only clues are these geosynchronous satellite photos. There's nothing else left."

The video monitor was blurry as the image was rewound to ten seconds prior to the incident. Maya counted down as the others observed the satellite image of NERV-2 just before. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. "…Contact!" Maya announced as the counter went to zero.

At the point of contact, what seemed like a large transparent cloud rapidly expanded from the center of NERV-2. As the cloud rapidly progressed the inside of it started to glow a bright red until the entire area was encompassed in a red globe. The satellite image then went static. Maya turned the image off.

"That's horrible!" Misato exclaimed. The master display image changed to green with text stating the obvious: VANISHED NERV-02.

Maya gave the summarized report from her clipboard. "Evangelion Unit 04 and all related research facilities within an 89 kilometer radius have completely vanished."

"Along with several thousand people," Ritsuko added.

Aoba went on to his report. "Looking at the time schedule, we believe it to be an accident during the experimental installation of the S2 engine that was restored in Germany."

Maya then continued. "Potential causes range from a lack of structural integrity to a preliminary design stage error. That's 32,768 possibilities right there!"

"And there's also the chance of sabotage," Misato added.

"But it didn't explode," said Lt. Hyuga. "It vanished, right? In other words, it disappeared."

"In all probability they were swallowed by a 'Dirac Sea,'" Dr. Akagi concluded. "Just like Unit 01 was." A Dirac Sea was basically a miniature black hole.

"And the S2 engine that we finally restored?" asked Misato.

"Gone." Ritsuko said simply. "Our dream's been shattered."

"That's what we get for trying to push ourselves into using something we don't understand," said Misato.

Ritsuko looked away. "That goes for the EVAs, too."

After the meeting, Misato walked down the hall to her office, where Lt. Hyuga caught up with her. "Katsuragi-san?"

"Yes?" she answered wearily. It had not been a good day for her.

"There's something you should see," he said. He showed her a display on his clipboard terminal. "We did an after-action analysis after the incident with EVA-03 and the S2 engine. Immediately after the battle we had all thought that it was EVA-02 that had shot Unit 03 in the head and brought it down. However the Tactical Dept. traced back all of the rounds fired in the battle and came up with _this_." Hyuga changed the display on the clipboard and showed Misato a display of the battlespace with color codes for the locations of the EVAs and colored lines for their bullets. EVA-02 was red, EVA-03 was black, EVA-01 and 00 were purple and blue, respectively, and EVA-04 was orange. Hyuga forwarded the graphic to the moment when EVA-03 was hit.

Misato took a good look as Hyuga played the display in slow-motion. "Wait a minute," she said as she saw the display play. "Orange!"

"Yes," Hyuga confirmed. "One shot, AFTER Unit 04 was powered down."

"How?" She looked at him. Hyuga shook his head and said "Only EVA-01 had ever exhibited that type of activity before and even then it was on auxiliary power. EVA-04's was shut off by direct command and was not even on batteries: only the entry plug had power. There's one more thing." He changed the display again.

Misato saw a sync ratio display of all five pilots during the action. Vance Vinson's was non-existent because he blocked all transmissions during the battle, but the other four pilots' data was visible. Hyuga played back the combat graphic again and froze it to just before Unit 04's shot was fired. "Here."

The Major looked at the display as the clock ran and noticed the jump. Hyuga continued to explain. "It's very brief, just for one half-second, but it's there!"

"His Sync Ratio is 378%!" she exclaimed.

"And then back down all the way to 0," Hyuga said. "Whatever else they're saying about how the Americans controlled their EVAs, I don't think a pilot could do that using something artificial as a link."

Misato just looked at the data. _Patrick_, she wondered, _what did you do?_

Over ten thousand kilometers away, in a remote mountain region of eastern North America, staffers in a medical clinic watched their television as it reported the story the rest of the world population was told: an asteroid similar but smaller to the one that hit Antarctica in 1999 had struck southern Nevada, vaporizing a UN scientific research center and destroying everything for at least a fifty mile radius. The clinic the staff worked in was a psychiatric type, quietly operating with a low profile as it mostly served wealthy and powerful persons and their families as well as others not wanting public or media attention to their condition.

Four months earlier a fourteen-year old girl was admitted to the clinic under mysterious circumstances. She had unkempt blond collar-length hair and porcelain skin with a beautiful elfin face. However when she arrived she was in a completely catatonic state, not responding to any outside stimuli.

The party that contacted the clinic provided a phone number and e-mail address to use if the girl's condition should ever change. They also provided an astonishingly large sum of money, even by the clinic's standards, to ensure she was well looked after and done so very discretely. When asked for prior medical records the contracting party refused to provide them, stating only that her condition was considered by other physicians to be "irreversible." No other information was provided aside from the girl's first name.

Nevertheless, the clinic admitted her and in the four months since she had been received she had neither moved, spoke, nor even opened her eyes. The nurses and other staff at the clinic worked to simply make her feel comfortable, keeping her warm and her private room periodically filled with ambient light and soft music.

As the others watched the unfolding crisis on the television, one of the nurses walked into the girl's room and noticed that for the first time she had opened her eyes. The nurse quickly called for a physician and then rushed over to check on the girl. Her emerald green eyes were wide open and quivering in fear, as tears rushed down her cheeks. The nurse gently shook her body and spoke to her, but the girl did not respond in any other way.

"Erin? Erin? Are you alright?"

Shinji pushed open the door to Rei Ayanami's apartment. She was inside, folding her clothes. "Ayanami?"

Rei turned around and saw Shinji. He was holding a small box in his hand. "Did you hear about NERV-2?" he asked. Rei nodded silently.

"Um, they really don't know what happened," said Shinji. "Everything just disappeared! Anyway, I thought you might like this." He handed Rei the small box.

She opened the box and saw that it was a small video player that turned on as she opened the lid, which became a tiny screen. On the player there was a short video of her "date" with Patrick filmed by Kensuke.

Shinji looked at her sadly. "I'll go now, Ayanami. I'm really sorry!" She turned away from Shinji and said, in her whisper-like voice: "Don't be."

After Shinji left the apartment, Rei walked to her dresser and watched the video again. _Was that really me?_ she wondered, as she saw a girl that looked like her walking with the American pilot, eating ice cream, and laughing.

She had never had a dream before, but perhaps this was like what the others called a dream, where in your sleep you see yourself doing things you wouldn't have imagined otherwise.

She thought about the boy. _What do you want?_ he had asked her. She hadn't thought much before about it, but now she wondered. What was possible? What was available? Could she choose?

But now the boy was gone, and her dream went with him.

She closed the video player and gently placed it on top of her "uniform" clothes, now neatly folded inside the dresser. Then she pushed the dresser shut. She fingered the broken set of eyeglasses that sat on top of the dresser, memories of something else that also seemed like a dream to her.

She looked out the veranda window of the apartment. Alone among the pilots, she knew the Evangelion's true secret: the dark, sad shadow that existed inside the core of the unit. Shinji had begun to realize what the secret was, while Asuka, using her overconfidence as a mask, was in fact terrified of what she experienced inside. But Patrick had also begun to realize what lived inside the Eva. _If he can just open his heart to her_, she thought, _he might be safe_.

_The Day Before, at NERV-2_…

The controller staff was busy with the preparations for the test. NERV-2s control center was smaller and more spartan than the grand facilities in Japan, but it would still seem impressive to outsiders. A large holographic display was mounted on the ceiling, which itself was 100 meters underground. On the display, inside of a concrete silo, was the silver-colored Unit 04.

The khaki-uniformed American controllers reported in: "All systems report normal."

"S2 Engine attachment reports nominal, all links are secure."

"Power reservoir is ready for flow."

Dr. Forrestal, or now it was Commander Forrestal, stood on the operations deck of the control center. "Activate the Dummy Plug. Commence the test."

NERV-2's controllers turned on the Dummy Plug, an artificial pilot supplied by NERV Third Branch's laboratories in Germany. The plug had been inserted earlier into the Evangelion unit. On a secondary screen, the display showed DUMMY PLUG KAWORU SYNC and a series of status numbers. "Dummy plug is activated. Dummy plug is synching with the Unit."

Dr. Forrestal responded to the controllers. "As soon as the synch ratio reaches nominal level, activate the S2 engine on my count. "

"Yes, sir."

At just before the synch threshold was crossed where the plug and the EVA would be on an equivalent neural wavelength, the control room displays flashed red warnings as alarm klaxons sounded. One of the controllers turned to Forrestal. "Sir, EVA-04 is rejecting the Dummy Plug! We can't get activation!

Another one spoke. "Confirmed. Evangelion Unit will not accept control of dummy plug."

Forrestal scoffed. "They gave me something that wasn't ready yet! Sloppy bastards, what do they think we're doing here? Go get the boy, now!"

Patrick was sulking inside of another prison cell. He was changed out of his clothes and into his plug suit. He couldn't hear the activity in the complex, but he could see the lights go dim and bright with the power fluxing. They were working on something major with Unit 04. He also knew the reason why he was dressed like this. Sooner or later he was going to be forced into the EVA. He considered taking off his plug suit, but the cell was too cold and he wasn't going to humor the guards with his humiliation. Besides, the plug suit wouldn't greatly affect his ability to sync and that was all that was important.

In the last few days Patrick had nothing but time to himself to put the pieces together. While his body just sat there in the cell, his brain had gone into overdrive to determine just how he had come to this end.

_When I was a little kid I used to think my father was the coolest guy on earth. He come up to see me in the cabin once a year, bringing lots of toys and gifts, and we'd talk all day about my life in the mountains and how he was working to save the entire world from destruction. Every time he came up I'd ask him when we could live together, and he'd always say "Maybe one day..." Then he'd go back down and I wouldn't hear from him for months on end. _

_What he kept hidden from me was that in the desert waiting for him to return was Erin, my twin. I can only guess, but she seemed like she was very close to him. _

_Erin, the me I could have been, living the life I thought I wanted._

_How did she know where to find me? Did EVA tell her? What else did EVA say to her? It must have been so shocking to learn the truth that way…_

_For most of my life I hated my uncle: strict, secretive, and paranoid. Growing up in a remote area, I didn't go to regular school and wasn't even allowed to interact with the few other kids close by. I felt so alone and angry, and I just wanted to have a life like everyone else's. _

_And, I hated my mother for leaving me with him._

_But Uncle knew about EVA: the mental training, the education, even learning Japanese. He knew. He couldn't tell me but he could still prepare me for what was coming. When it really mattered, the pieces of the puzzle came together and I was at the right place at the right time. _

_Now I'm sorry for the way I felt then. I seem to always hate the ones that care the most. _

_Vance, you tried to protect me, didn't you? You were the one I most looked up to, the one who taught me to be strong and daring. You were my first and best friend. I would have followed you anywhere, except…I couldn't let you hurt her no matter how strongly you believed in what you were doing. Not her. Not them._

_It's ironic, really. It was the strength and courage you gave me that allowed me to stop you._

_I guess somehow I did the right thing. Doesn't really feel like it, though._

_Rei, I'm so glad I met you! Everyone else seems to find you so hard to fathom, but really you're not. Locked inside someone else's world, you're just trying to reach out and touch something that's real. _

_I remember back in your apartment, after our disaster of a date, and I asked you what you wanted. You didn't know, but you wanted to find out. And at that moment I wanted to help you find out too._

_I wish we could be together so we could both help solve each other's puzzles. Unfortunately it's not to be. But I don't regret anything. I could at least hold your hand, and you touched me in a place so deep inside I didn't even know it existed. I woke up after that day and realized what was really important and what I really wanted for myself._

_Now my father is doing something with EVA, something that can't possibly be good. "The world doesn't deserve to live!" he said on the plane. He means to end it all, for every one of us and especially for those in Tokyo-3. I won't let him do it. _

_Rei, I can't be with you now. But I can still protect you, so at least you can have hope and find out what it is that you really want for yourself. _

_I used to hate EVA until I found out what EVA really was. I have you to thank for that, Rei. You opened my eyes, and my heart. Now I'll fight to give you and the others a fighting chance._

The door opened, and several uniformed security guards came inside. A senior one said to him, "Come with us, please."

Patrick just sat there on the floor. "I'm not going anywhere. You can kill me if you like."

The leader motioned to the others. "Grab him." Patrick struggled with every ounce of strength he had left as the guards grabbed his arms and legs and carried him out of the cell.

_Erin…I'm sorry… I'll never get to know you…_

Still struggling, he was placed into the entry plug for EVA-04. There was a new addition to the control throne in the plug: there were now very heavy shackles attached to the arm actuators, and to the leg pits. He was bolted into the throne and then the guards left and the door shut.

The lead controller reported back to Commander Forrestal. "Pilot is secure." Harrison Forrestal smiled. "Start the test again."

Within the plug the LCL began to flood inside. Patrick tried to escape the shackles but it was impossible. _Please, please, don't let them do this...Rei…_

The controllers re-initiated. Above them one video screen showed EVA-04 while another showed the pilot status with video feed to the pilot, who was still struggling. A third screen showed a satellite view of the NERV-2 facility. "Sync ratio is rising, interface with EVA unit reaching threshold. All systems are nominal."

It was going to work this time. "Good," answered Forrestal. "Start the S2 engine activation on my mark. Ten, Nine…"

Trapped inside the plug Patrick knew he had just one option left. He relaxed his muscles, closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could. He whispered quietly, as if it were a prayer.

"Please do something, please."

"Eight, Seven…"

"What do you want with me?" a voice called out to him.

"What?"

"Six, Five…"

"What do you want with me?" It was Rei's voice inside his head.

"Just to be with you!" he said aloud.

Suddenly within the entry plug an apparition appeared. Cloudy at first, it took the form of a pure white, naked female figure that silently floated towards him. As he looked up at the figure, it transformed into an image of Rei Ayanami in her school uniform. She floated directly in front of him and gently caressed his face, smiling at him. The inside of the entry plug began to glow very, very brightly.

"Four, Three…"

In the main control room one of the controllers jumped and swiveled around his seat. "Commander, there is a massively high energy reading coming from the Eva itself. "

"What?!"

The controller pointed at the wall display. "It's coming from the entry plug!" The wall video display showing the inside of the entry plug was now filled with white light.

_Peggy, no! Don't stop me!_ "Stop the activation!" Forrestal ordered.

"Too late!!!"

Seen from the lens of a geosynchronous satellite orbiting above, a massive energy bubble rapidly expanded from the center of the facility. In only a few seconds the bubble rapidly expanded to all the surrounding area, changed to bright red and then black, and then disappeared. There was literally nothing left within the area, except a gigantic crater.


	14. Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Patrick opened his eyes and found himself standing on a street corner. He looked around and after a few moments he remembered where he was. It was Old Hakone.

He looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary. The place looked just like it did the Sunday afternoon that he was there before. People were walking the streets and chatting with each other. Cars and buses sped by him. There was a slight breeze, and the sun was shining brightly. He was no longer wearing his plug suit but had on regular clothes.

_It's just like it was! This means that…He looked in the distance and saw the train station._ He quickly ran there and found the park that was in front. In the park he searched for and found the same tree. Standing in front of the tree with her back turned to him was Rei, dressed in the outfit that Shinji had given her. He started to walk to her and as he got close she turned to face him. She tilted her head slightly and smiled at him, the wind gently blowing her azure hair. Patrick saw that she gently held the blue rose in her hands. At that moment he ran to Rei and embraced her, and she held him tightly.

Oblivious to everything that was around him, he stood there, closed his eyes, and just held her in his arms. Finally, he was home.

THE END

The story continues! Part II of the Blue Rose is now available at .net/s/6361990/1/The_bBlue_b_bRose_b_b2_b_Sacrifices_of_the_Heart

The Blue Rose is also featured at .com

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